Good day, eh?

Hello again from the Great White North, where I arrived after a 14-hour train ride and one extremely strange cab ride. It snowed on Christmas day, and many of the stores along Spadina Avenue were open, since they are owned by Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian peoples. Had good vegetarian chow at 668 Cafe.

Today is Boxing Day, which originally meant that you gave gifts to your servants and boxes of food to the poor today. However, now it means post-Christmas sales. It seems like every store is having Boxing Week sales.

R.I.P. Joe Strummer. How fucking depressing. I don't really know what to say besides that.  ¶ 9:34 AM 0 comments

  Did Peeps exist in Middle Earth?

This is just too brilliant. Too farkin' brilliant. The costumes! The sets! The sugar!

I love Peeps, but I'm a traditionalist - I can only eat the classic chicks and perhaps the bunnies at Easter. Yes, it's nice that I can get trees, hearts, ghosts, and other shapes during the year, but there's something about ripping the head off a chick with your teeth, turning it around in your mouth, and then sticking out your tongue so the disembodied head is dangling on your tongue.  ¶ 3:23 PM 0 comments

  Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.

Well, I guess no matter how many times he apologized, Trent Lott just couldn’t get his foot out of his mouth. It was pretty firmly wedged in there. I’d say his toes were probably scraping his esophagus.

Now he can enjoy a White Christmas, so to speak.

Wow, that happened much sooner than I thought it would. Good thing I didn’t start that Trent Lott Resignation Pool.

This reminds me of another December surprise, four years ago, when Bob Livingston announced his resignation live on the House floor, on December 19, 1998, during the debate on the articles of impeachment against then President Clinton.

It's going to be a pundit-riffic evening!
  ¶ 10:31 AM 0 comments

  Humbug.

I like this seasonal sentiment from Keith Knight of The K Chronicles.

Was at the maul yesterday for non-gift buying purposes (needed a duffel bag), and was surprised to see how much stock the stores still have, especially the clothing stores, in all sizes and colors. Usually, the black and grey pieces of clothing are the first to disappear, leaving only pukey-colors behind. In addition, the popular sizes (M and L, Women's 10, 12, 14, Men's 32, 34, 36 waist) are usually snapped up as well. However, stores were very overstocked in a range of colors and sizes, with less than a week to go before December 25th. This cheers me somewhat. One of the reasons I really dislike the holiday season is the rampant consumerism and commercialism, not to sound too Lucy Van Pelt about it. Oh, yeah, there's also the religious aspect of the holiday that I am extremely conflicted about. I've gotten pretty good at downsizing the holidays on a personal level, and participated in Buy Nothing Day. I spent a lot of time this year making mix CDs and creating different covers for each one using nifty little odds and ends. I avoided stores, only going in to purchase one specific item and then leave. I just don't understand how the "average" American spends over $800 on holiday gifts each year. That's like my grocery budget for more than six months!   ¶ 10:52 AM 0 comments

  Allied Media Conference

Road Trip! The Allied Media Conference (formerly known as the Underground Publishing Conference) has announced the dates for its 5th Annual Conference: June 13 to June 15, 2003 in lovely Bowling Green, Ohio. There's not much information up on the Clamor Magazine web site as of yet, but be sure to check back and also sign up for their e-mailing list.  ¶ 3:54 PM 0 comments

  Thwap!

Nestled today in my PO Box was the Slingshot Organizer 2003 I ordered from the Slingshot Collective last week. What speedy service!

The Slingshot Collective is based in Berkeley, CA, and is a very active anarchist group. They publish the newspaper The Slingshot, and every year (for the last nine, anyway) they have produced the Slingshot Organizer, a cool little date book full of nifty information and places to write your appointments for the upcoming year. Cool little size, too, 4 x 5 inches.

This year’s Organizer has lots of cool extras like a vegan chocolate cake recipe, a menstrual calendar, information about what to do if stopped by the police, essays about anti-capitalism, blank pages for notes and addresses, and interesting facts for each day of the year. Did you know that July 4 is “Smash your Television Day” in Berkeley? Or that on April 12, 1858, the United Sons of Vulcan (steel workers union) was created in Pittsburgh, PA?

The Organizer is only $5 and is completely handmade by the Collective and available in the coolest range of colors. The one I received is “On the Rag Red.” There’s also colors like “Rusty Bike Chain,” “Fairy Puke,” and “Your Mom’s Slutty Blue Eyeshadow.”

So, not to sound too much like an advertisement, order up your Organizer today! Hey, it’s much more a conversation piece than one of those Dilbert date books.
  ¶ 11:57 AM 0 comments

  More seemingly unrelated tidbits...

That don't really relate to each other, but to much of yesterday's rantings.

First, if you haven't heard or seen the lovely band The Hangdogs, I suggest you click over to their site and check 'em out. Pick up some of their albums while you're at it, too. If you live in the NYC area, I highly recommend checking out their live show. Rock 'n' roll with an alt.country twang and rootsy goodness. Plus, luscious Matthew Hangdog has the same views about those diamond commercials as I do.

From their December newsletter, the Hangdoggerel:

DIAMONDS ARE FOR... WHAT EXACTLY? by Matthew Hangdog
I don't want to seem insensitive to unquestioned and stupid social axioms, but I've got a new criterion for buying diamonds for that "special someone" -- as all these dumbass ads keep hammering me to do -- which is this: Ask yourself WHAT IN FLAMING HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? What could you possibly be thinking to spend that much goddamn money on something that doesn't DO anything? Oh, right, right, it EXPRESSES how much you LOVE someone, in the form of inert matter that a bunch of bloated, peasant-flaying kings decided was worth something a billion years ago. Man, THAT's love. I see all these women on TV ooing and ahing whenever one of their girlfriends gets some damn diamond bracelet, but I've asked around, and maybe I just hang out with pretty cool betties, but I don't know a single freaking one who would prefer a diamond to a DVD player or a PlayStation. Problem with that is, there are now several people expecting DVD players or PlayStations from me this holiday season.

Guess my opinion makes me one of those "cool betties."

Aaron McGruder's comic The Boondocks is one of the sharpest cultural and political commentaries out there. Especially today's strip.

The logo for the Total Information Awareness plan gives me the creeps.
  ¶ 10:10 AM 0 comments

  Catching up.

I have been a somewhat negligent blogger, so today I will make up for it with many unrelated bits o’ information.

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I hate this commercial! I hate this commercial!

I don’t watch much television, just the small handful of programs I consider to be “Appointment Television.” [Side Rant: Why is it I feel that I have to justify watching television to the more lefty-leaning members of society? It almost feels more socially acceptable to say “I watch porn” than “I watch television” because they you can at least pull out the argument that porn can be feminist and blah blah blah. Fine, I watch television! I watch Buffy! I watch C.S.I., original recipe and extra crispy! I love Law & Order: Special Victims Unit! I even watch Survivor!]

And, even though I don’t watch much of the tube, I will be so glad when December 26th rolls around, so I can stop having to mute all the damn holiday spending frenzy commercials. I hate the one from JC Penney with the spoiled little brat printing out a two page wish list. I hate the cheery Target commercials will all the happy Bobos having a festive party. I hate the Lexus commercial where people are receiving brand new cars festooned with a huge bow.

But most of all, I hate the commercials for jewelry and especially diamonds. The commercial I despise the most is from DeBeers, of a couple standing in a crowded town square surrounded by pigeons. Suddenly, alpha male screams at the top of his lungs “I LOVE THIS WOMAN,” people whirl around to look, and the pigeons all take off. He then gives the woman a ring with a bunch of huge rocks on it, and she starts crying “I love this man, I love this man.”

Bleah. You don’t know how much I hope that during the filming of this commercial, everyone got covered with pigeon poop. Repeatedly.

Yep, show your love by purchasing an obscenely expensive trinket most likely obtained by child slaves working in the mines, marketed extensively so women believe they need one, and often vastly overpriced. A year ago, American Radioworks did an excellent series entitled With This Ring: Following the International Diamond Trail, about the diamond industry. Read it before you decide to go out and spend “two month’s salary” on something that is supposed “to last forever.”

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We’re more careful that that, eh?

Interesting response to Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine on the radio program On the Media this weekend, pointing out the details that Moore left out of the film. For example, yes, Canada has 8 million registered guns, but 7.5 million of those are hunting rifles, not handguns.

Actually, there has been some rumblings in the Canadian media about how their country was portrayed in the film. From the review in the Halifax Daily News:

And he sure does love Canada. Bowling for Columbine portrays Canadians as benign cow-like creatures who leave our doors and hearts open at all times. It’s a bit embarrassing, and doesn’t really go anywhere. Still, it’s nice to be loved.

In addition, the CBC reports that the scene where Moore buys ammo at an Ontario Wal-Mart without showing identification is inaccurate.

Even with these problems, I still feel that Bowling for Columbine is a very strong film.

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Orwellian

The Village Voice has been doing incredibly strong coverage on the attack on American’s civil liberties since the terrorist attacks, from the USA Patriot Act to the Total Information Awareness plan. This week is no different, with Nat Hentoff’s article about the TIA plan and comparisons to 1984. Check out all their coverage about the Attack on Civil Liberties. If you’re not scared now, you will be.

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This Week’s Zine of Choice

Mark Hain’s Dirt and Sky, an incredibly well-written account of the past few months of Mark’s life, most notably, the death of his father. This is one of the best zines I’ve read in 2002, up there with I Was a Teenage Mormon. I am really having a difficult time putting into words how I feel about this zine. I just can’t say “it was great!” because that seems to lessen the impact of the writing. So, just trust me. It is well worth your time to read this zine.

Ordering Info: Dirt and Sky / $4 / Digest sized, 72 pages. Care of: Mark Hain, PO Box 411, Swarthmore, PA 19081
  ¶ 1:34 PM 0 comments

  It didn't have much of a yesterday, either.

Greetings from Hazleton, PA, where I spent 18 miserable years of my life. Things haven't changed much. I used to walk around the mall until closing time, too. When I was old enough to drive, we'd drive the same loop over and over. Never huffed spray paint, though.

  ¶ 9:36 PM 0 comments

  Cats would never stand for this

Last night, on King of the Hill, both Hank and son Bobby got involved in the "sport" of canine freestyle, or "doggie dancing." Yep, it's what it sounds like - dancing with your dog to music, including props, fancy steps, and leaps.

It had to be a joke, right?

Not even close. Unless sites like Dance With Your Dog and The Canine Freestyle Federation, Inc. are elaborate hoaxes, the sport of dog dancing is 100% true.

Given the large number of pages returned from Germany (that is, .de), it seems as if this activity either originated in Germany or is incredibly popular in that country.  ¶ 2:42 PM 0 comments

  Gunfighter Nation (Apologies to Richard Slotkin)

Today I was finally able to see Michael Moore’s newest film, Bowling for Columbine. Disclaimer: I enjoy Moore’s work. I’ve viewed all his films multiple times (Roger & Me, Pets or Meat, The Big One, even Canadian Bacon), devoured his books (Downsize This! and Stupid White Men), watched his TV shows (TV Nation and The Awful Truth), and even saw him speak live at the U of I campus earlier this year. Plus, he thinks librarians are really, really cool people.

While I enjoyed Bowling for Columbine, I really felt that he was, for lack of a better term, preaching to the choir. Let’s face it, the audience for this movie are going to be a bunch of lefty-leaning liberals like myself, who already agree that there is a problem with guns in this country. There are some truly horrifying statistics included in this film, such as the amount of money the U.S. has given to its enemies, and death tolls from America’s seemingly endless need to invade strange countries and kill people (or so the bumper sticker says). There are also many disturbing images, such as the full tape of former Pennsylvania treasurer R. Bud Dwyer [work safe link] blowing his brains out at a press conference in 1987. I remember this incident well, because I grew up in PA, and the day he held his press conference was a school holiday (I believe it was Presidents’ Day), and all the local stations had cut to the live press conference. It happened very quickly. Violence in movies is much more graphic.

I also think that the security camera footage from the Columbine High School shootings should be shown in a more public arena, i.e. television. (Bowling for Columbine has an R rating, so younger teens may not be able to see it.) The footage is horrifying, but not gratuitous. It is terrifying to watch these students running for their lives, which can be seen clearly on the grainy security tape, followed by Klebold and Harris stalking around the empty cafeteria, tossing molitov cocktails.

Overall, the film is rather well balanced, which I think can be attributed to the fact that Moore is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, and used to be quite the sharpshooter as a teen. It’s not so much a condemnation of guns, as of the gun culture, and easy access to weapons and ammunition that no civilian needs. K-Mart comes off looking good, because after a visit from Moore, two students permanently injured in the Columbine shootings, and the media, they phased out selling handgun ammunition in their stores.

However, as my friend pointed out after the film, it was noble for K-Mart to do that, but it’s K-Mart. They’re in huge financial trouble and have already closed many of their stores. It would have been much more groundbreaking if Wal-Mart (the world’s biggest retailer) had agreed to stop selling handgun ammunition.

Unfortunately, Moore can be a wee bit heavy handed at times, especially in his music choices under montages, such as “What a Wonderful World” and “Happiness is a Warm Gun.” Also, leaving the picture of Kayla (the six year old shot by another six year old in Flint, MI in 2000) at the door of Charleston Heston’s house seemed a bit much. However, as I mentioned before, I am the choir. It may affect other viewers differently.

My hope is that Bowling for Columbine reaches more than just the “regular” Michael Moore audience, and at least gets people to think about guns, gun control, the culture of violence and fear in America, and the roots of these problems. The movie provided little in the way of answers or suggestions about what people can do to try to prevent gun violence in America, but then again, it’s not really Moore’s (or any person who creates entertainment) responsibility to find those answers.

Since I wanted to stay “pure” to see Bowling for Columbine, I avoided reading any reviews of the film. I can now go back and see what sort of spin the critics put on it. I’ll post links to any particularly interesting reviews in the next few days.
  ¶ 11:23 PM 0 comments