The Chronicles of Ridicule

So, Will Los Angeles Black Out on October 20th...or Watt?

2007-10-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

...that's a clip from one of my favorite films, Phillip Glass' called "Koyaanisqatsi" (slathered with the Strokes' "Reptilia")...the flick holds a message that goes with the thrust of what I'm about to say...I don't know if you've heard about this but it appears that the powers that are in my fair city are taking a proactive stab at conserving energy...but it might be a day late and a dollar short...

"Led by Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke and City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, the proposed effort asks Angelenos to simultaneously go dark between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 20, as San Franciscans do the same. Local officials are expected to vote on the plan next week.

At the original event in Sydney, Australia, in March, 2.2 million people cut the lights, causing a 10% drop in electricity use. The so-called Earth Hour reduced 25 tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to taking nearly 49,000 cars off the road for 60 minutes...

Although officials still are finalizing which public buildings will join in the voluntary blackout, possible candidates include City Hall, the county Hall of Administration, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, DWP headquarters, the Port of Los Angeles and the multicolored pylons at Los Angeles International Airport.

"I think it will have a big visual impact," Katona said." (here's the rest in the LA Times)

...okay, I'll bite, I said to myself when I heard this on talk radio earlier...I'll do my part but I wonder if those millions of single-serve commuters will step up to the plate for 60 minutes to see if they can make a difference...I'm skeptical as it'll take place during Prime Time on a Saturday...and if there's one thing that Angelenos can't deal with, it's an inconvenience to their party plans and intra-city travel habits...they didn't back in 2000 and I don't think even the spike in fuel prices will make 'em curb their power-sponging ways...and I said as much during that last heatwave.

...I bike around this town all the time and take notice of all the wasting of natural resources, primarily water, that goes into making what's essentially a desert by the sea look like some side street art-deco utopia...well at least in the parts where the the "ghetto birds" don't fly too often...don't get me wrong, I hope the proposal gets pushed through and everyone chips in, but I'm familiar enough enough with my fellow citizens and how a lot of them would rather sweep the whole conservation thing under the rug...until it gets unbearable and we get what we got in 2000...when I ride the commuter bus and trains in the morning, it's rare that I see car poolers...even now...so pardon me if the tongue in my cheek hinders my speech...

...ah well, a positive anything beats a negative nothing...I'm no Ed Begley, Jr but I'll give it a whirl just the same even if the proposal doesn't get approved because it's high time for us all to think about alternatives...on many fronts..."ain't nobody gonna shite, shave or bathe until some changes are made!" as my granny used to say when she got fed up with feckless proles, talkin' loud and saying nothing...it all reminds me of a piece I wrote a while back which I closed like so: "... The word "Koyaanisqatsi" is a Hopi Indian noun for "life out of balance; crazy life; life in turmoil; life disintegrating; a state of life that calls for another way of living"...I still stand by that line of thought ... if you live in the area, why don't you do your part on October 20th, yo?...

Check It: "Ich Bin Nackt"...mit Stereo Total

2007-10-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

...a few things for those who read me on the regs: if you've been doing so lately, you'd know that my MacBook's been on the fritz and I took it in to the AppleStore where it is now being turned B.A.D.,"bigger and deffer", as LL Cool J woulda put it back in the day...I've grown so used to that thing that it's been kind of weird sliding back into my old rhythms, like going to the magazine stand down the street and copping that week's New Yorker and actually sitting down to read it cover to cover with a couple of ciggies and double espressos...for years that was a part of my Saturday regiment and it was refreshing to return to this weekend...

...another thing about me you might've picked up is that I loves my music and you'd be hard pressed to catch me anywhere without tunage in some configuration on my person...but there's just so much of it out there...and doing what I do, I get turned on to so much chaff that it's hard to keep up with the stuff that rises...so, I don't get in a twist when I get told where the bear shites in the buckwheat, if something's good. Case in point, this last Saturday, I wanted to check out the second season of Weeds (as you know, I do my TV shows by seasons in one sitting)...but realized that the copies that were brought to me from Europe were configured for a program that I had on my Mac...which is in the shop...so I said fuggit, called over to Penny Lane and shot down to the video store to rent 'em...while searching for the discs on the shelving, I hear in between tunes on my headphones (I'm still blasting Greg Sage & Wipers Is This Real? Box-- again, if you check me, are another band to seek out nice 'n quick-like...I'm not too proud to say that a girlfriend hipped me to 'em...there's a grip of good sound out there that gets drowned out by the white noise of mediocre scheiße that the suits try to soft sell/shovel into the collective earholes of the record-buying public like we're being fattened up for foi gras...but there's more than one way to cook a goose...

...I'm one of that hard-headed lot who has a habit of absorbing his data and thinks for himself, son...so it took a few seconds for my ears to perk up when I heard this cut from Stereo Total blaring out of the speakers and ask the horn-rimmed, tatted up art-schooler behind the counter for some 411 and he hips me...I turn him onto a new wave group from Deutschland I thought he'd like called Ideal...a tune called, ironically, Berlin which he did vibe on, so a little barting-of-beats took place...

...when I got home, I continued to strayed away from the "Off the grid" game plan for a bit and did a little research (because I gotta know once my curiosity's piqued) and found out a little more about Stereo Total...turns out that the group's based in Berlin, a city I tend to visit in the next couple of months, and are comprised of members from all over Europe among them, vocalist/guitarist/drummer Françoise Cactus from France and vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Brezel Göring who's from Germany...their debut set, Oh Ah! dropped a-decade-and-change ago, picking up where groups like Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and The Sea and Cake had gone before...which is a good thing...so, I keep digging around and although I see the album and tour with the Octopus Project mentioned in a music eZine with a penchant for grandiloquent exposition of musical minutia, I moved on and find a few cuts of theirs on MOG where apparently people have been blabbin' about the group since April of this year...you can't catch 'em all, boyo so let's not stand on ceremony with the "you read it here first" bit-- here's a video for Ich Bin Der Stricherjunge...the slice that caught my attention whilst looking for my flicks...I'd heard it before but didn't know where at the time...

...clearly, I'm sold on Stereo Total and will submit that this is definitely an electro-pop band worth checking out...the dude at the counter told me that I'd just missed a show of theirs in LA by about a month...(which I saw in the aformentioned eZine)...based on his description of how the band members played and built a rapport with the audience on the stage-- he told me that they hung out with the audience before blowing shit up on stage, smoking fags and kickin'it...it let me know that if they've been at it this long and they're still doing that sort of shite, they're lifers or will be around for a minute or two more, at least...they've got something to say that's worth saying and they're doing it the old fashioned way...

...if you like early LPs from Stereolab, or that Daft Punk drift, this group won't do you wrong...these fuckers have the sack-and-temerity to take a stab at a Serge Gainsbourg cut...and nail its ass to the floorboards...they get propers from over here...as stated above, my MacBook's tucked up and I'm not writing this piece on my PC but these YouTubes are proper..."ooh, shocking"...check their video for Ich Bin Nackt (I Am Naked) from their Do the Bambi LP (cover above)...

...I love an enemble that doesn't take itself too seriously but can actually play their fucking instruments, make their ideas felt, get shit done-- and still aren't afraid to experiment which stokes the flames of the jazz-lover in me too-- I likes it all, son...you can get a free download of "Patty Hearst" from the band's label Disko B for free right here on one of the label's landing pages; which I think is uber-cool of 'em...blowin' shite up...gettin' things done...righteous, son...here's another vid from the new album called "Plastic"...kinda Ramones...kinda Bomb the Twist...kinda "Orgiastic"...kinda nice...find this band, if you haven't already...

Monkey Man...Thy Name is Lieberman...

2007-09-27T09:54:00.000-07:00

...this piece was written earlier in the morning...take your time, follow all the linkage and see where the rabbit hole goes...

...man, I'm getting tired of waking up mornings with my skin leaking...I should stop sleeping with talk radio on but that shite's like crack...I bolted up out of REM sleep this morning while subconsciously absorbing the Bill Press Show when I heard about the Senate's overwhelming support of separating Iraq into three regions...why do I care, you ask?

...ever since Joe Lieberman (pictured above in a pic that looks like he's about to swap spit with the POTUS) dropped the "Going Independent-bomb" back in February, because of the DNC's stance on sending another 21,500 troops into the combat, he's turned into a sabre-rattling arse; began acting like a hand puppet/ mouthpiece for the GOP...something along the lines of Willie Tyler and Lester or, better still, Wayland Flowers and Madame (pictured below with some of the dancers who used to appear with them on those old episodes of solid Gold back in the day)...

...I get a little dispeptic every time I see/ hear him deliver one of those tight-lipped, terse-mandibled "Joe-mentum", stay the course speeches cheerleading towards the right on why it would behoove us to keep shoveling our dough down that Mesopotamian money-hole...he too had a role in last nights terror-sweat and according to the verbiage I found in the LA Times...

"The White House reacted tersely, noting that the measure conditions the policy change on the agreement of Iraqis. "The amendment recognizes that Iraqis will be the ones that make decisions about their political future," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement. 'It also reiterates the importance of bottom-up reconciliation.'In the Senate, Biden's proposal has attracted far more Republican support than any previous Democratic plan, but it will have no practical effect unless it pressures the president or Iraqis to change course. Senate Democrats last week failed three times to overcome GOP filibusters of measures designed to more forcefully change the course of U.S. policy in Iraq, including two that would have mandated a withdrawal."

......read the rest here

...I still try to retain a modicum of optimism, though, while ignorning what sometimes seems to hang over my shoulders like a cloud of impending doom and gloom...a little hope, if you like..especially when I read news stories that begin like this:

"An Oregon judge on Wednesday ruled that two provisions of the Patriot Act violated the U.S. Constitution's protection against unlawful searches and seizures." ...continued on Reuters...now that's a little good news, ain't it?

...maybe the worm will turn and more of us will get the proverbial zap on their heads before the culmination of the 2008 election cycle...but, as I've said before in one of many of my self-styled Letters to Americans... I won't hold my breath, either...

What Would JFK Have to Say...?

2007-09-26T11:27:00.000-07:00

...I've ranted on here before about my views on how the American public does itself a disservice when they don't demand better from their media outlets but lately it's become plainer to see that that is not a one way street that the American braintrust travels on...I posted a link to this for one of my readers elsewhere...I'll admit that the images can get a little ham-handed but I was shooting for the President's vox for this post...too, I thought I'd slap it on here because, to be honest, I think these words from JFK bear repeating...especially in lieu of what's been taking place on the world stage for the last couple days...press play and read along...

JFK speech 1961

"Ladies and gentlemen,

the very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society. And we are, as a people, inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago, that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts, far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.

Even today there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating it's arbitrary restrictions. Even today there is little value in ensuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it.
And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand it's meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment.

That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it's in my control and no official of my administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle descent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.

For we are opposed, around the world, by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding it's sphere of influence on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly-nit, highly-efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations. It's preparations are concealed, not published. It's mistakes are buried, not headlined. It's descent is silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed.

No president should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding, and from that understanding comes support or opposition, and both are necessary. I am not asking your newspapers to support an administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people, for I have complete confidence - - in the response and dedication of our citizens, whenever they are fully informed.

I could not only stifle controversy among your readers, I welcome it. This administration intends to be candor about it's errors, for as a wise man once said: 'An error doesn't become a mistake, until you refuse to correct it'. We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors and we would expect you to point them out when we miss them. Without debate, without criticism no administration and no country can succeed and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the first amendment. The only business in America specifically protected by the constitution. Not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply give the public what it wants, but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crisis and our choices, to lead, mold, educate, and sometimes even anger public opinion.

This means great coverage and analysis of international news, for it is no longer far away and foreign, but close-at-hand and local. It means greater attention to improve understanding of the news as well as improved transmission and it means finally that government, at all levels, must meet it's obligation to provide you with the fullest possible information outside to narrowest limits of national security.

And so it is to the printing press, to the recorder of man's deeds, the keeper of his conscious, the carrier of his news that we look for strength and assistance.

Confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent."

...amen, Mr. President...CP, out...

Janeane Garofalo: Still One of My Favorite Broads...

2007-09-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

...a decade and change before Disney dropped Ratatouille I was into Janeane Garofalo...I think I started falling for her in Reality Bites when she played Vickie-- a chick with convictions; stood for what she believed in...and still knew who in the hell Willona Woods from Good Times was...since I've moved to California, I've run into some of the cast from that particular film while doing the writing thing-- like Ethan "crustache" Hawke (in still below with co-star Janeane ) and even Matt "the forehead" Dillon but Garofalo's the one I've always wanted to have a sit down with and shoot the shite about current affairs and books...hell, she even pulled off a cameo at the end of Pulp Fiction...

...this lady is probably why I dig on brainy brunette broads with big mouths who wear pointy glasses and usually have something to say...Garofalo's been burned at the stake for speaking her mind but she didn't just step off the stage at open mic night in the Bryn Mawr student union...she's got some big ideas that she uses her comedic chops to convey...she's earned her mumpin' bones first doing stand up, then acting and now, a mixture of the two...

...when it's all said and done, I think a lot of people will say they were down from the beginning...like those fuckers who say they liked the Buzzcocks long before Ghost World came out...I used to love her and Sam Seder's talk show on Air America...then it got pulled...but it was funny and I was one of the early bloggers on that show's hell raising earlier threads (BlayznSddlz, son)...check my girl out tearing Faux News' Brian Kilmeade a new one a couple of years ago, the February before the war in Iraq was initiated and, well, you see what we've wrought...Peaches...

...here she is speaking on one of my favorite HBO series: Rome...

...here she is calling Bill Maher out...a couple of nights ago for toe-ing the line on the low-low...

...later, breaking down Directive 17 and the "Mission Accomplished" ethos on another segment in that same show...see, put her in an environment, not in the middle of a gaggle of brainwashed brownshirts on Fox hell bent on shouting her down but one that's open to new ideas, alternate ways of thinking and she's 'bout it-'bout it...go' on, girl...

...and, finally, my favorite from this appearance...how Colin Powell, somebody I actually HAVE met... could've changed history...and didn't!!!...

...On Livin' Large, Slingin' Slang...and Not Sleepin'

2007-09-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

The Chronicles of Ridicule

So, Will Los Angeles Black Out on October 20th...or Watt?

Check It: "Ich Bin Nackt"...mit Stereo Total

Monkey Man...Thy Name is Lieberman...

What Would JFK Have to Say...?

Janeane Garofalo: Still One of My Favorite Broads...

...On Livin' Large, Slingin' Slang...and Not Sleepin'

Blerd Part 2: The Coke Bottles and The Buddha...

The Heatwave's Wrath: Squeezin' My Mind Grapes...

Mind Over Matter...with Mammoth Hunting...

Peter Fonda & Ben Foster Get Mean: 3:10 to Yuma (Q&A)

Taking Too Long: The Weight of Waiting...and Wipers!!!

Blerd: Would YOU Hire this Guy???

...Indian Summer: O' My Brothers...Where Art Ye?

On Brick Top, My Hollywood "Signs" and The Wheel in the Sky...

3:10 to Yuma: Christian Bale & Russell Crowe (Q&A)

Rewind: Open Range - A New-fangled Western...with a Familiar Formula

Gino d’Auri: The Baddest Guitarist You Never Heard…Yet

The Esbjörn Svensson Trio is a Bonafide FIND!

Pimsleur's Audio Books: Müßten Sie etwas Lernen? (Wanna Learn Something?)....

...Sometimes, There's a Man Who Fits Right in There...

Karl Rove: Can the Turd Blossom Get His Frog-March, Please?

On Born in the USA, Bruce Springsteen Springs Eternal

Ginsberg's Sunflower Sutra: The Beat Goes On...In Me.

Spoon + Breakin' Baby + 30 Gallon Tank = CrashUp...

...My Appetite for Destruction Meets The Pimp…

Uncle "Scam"...and the Death of the Dollar...

Rewind: KILL BILL, Vol. 1...

What IS Hips? or Achtung Das Bodenfeuerwirblers...

Are You Not Entertained? Are...You...Not...ENTERTAINED???

Find This Book: The Future of Media -- Resistance and Reform in the 21st Century

The Simpsons Movie: Does Whatever a Special Episode Can (Review)

This Is England -- Watch and Learn (Film Review)

Fark You Too: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap As News...

Alicia Silverstone v. Lindsay Lo-- Who's Clueless? (Q&A)

Do Not Arrest This Man...

Check It: Joe Strummer's Global A Go Go...

Jay Mohr Talks Bad Brains, C. Walken and Tom Cruise (Q&A)

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry: The New Runaway Movie

Evan Almighty: How the Mighty Have Fallen (Review)

Rewind: Troy -- The 3 Degrees of Swords, Sandals...and Braveheart? (Review)

Thelonious Monk: Live @ the It Club (Review)

Silver City Should be Seen Again...and Again (Review)...

...Wipers: Before There was Kurt, there was Greg Sage...

Agent Orange’s Living in Darkness (Review)

Oolooloo: The Pietasters Return with a 2 Tone Twist...

Check It: Duke Ellington's New Orleans Suite

E Ku'u Baby Hot Cha Cha