VHS rip of a rare 1997 Infinity Factory interview with "wrecker of civilisation" Genesis Breyer P-Orridge (the interview is incomplete as I found this purely by accident at the end of one of the tapes Richard Metzger sent me).
This is a fascinating interview with Gen talking about his expulsion from Britain, his introduction to Brion Gysin and how this changed his perception of William S. Burroughs.
Way ahead of its time, Infinity Factory was a talk show that streamed via Disinfo.com between 1997 and 1999. It was also broadcasted on Manhattan's public-access television cable TV and distributed inline through Pseudo.com.
VHS rip of a two hour Infinity Factory interview with legendary author and guerrilla ontologist Robert Anton Wilson.
Dated November 7th 1997, the interview was conducted by Richard Metzger with special guest, wrecker of civilisation, Genesis P-Orridge.
Way ahead of its time, Infinity Factory was a talk show that streamed via Disinfo.com between 1997 and 1999. It was also broadcasted on Manhattan's public-access television cable TV and distributed inline through Pseudo.com.
I'm not sure how this film slipped through the cracks here at Media Underground. Mortimer's prime directive is about bringing you news and information totally unavailable in the mainstream press. We like to keep on top of things and make sure you get the latest inside dope on shit you can't find anywhere else. Maybe this got posted on Disinformation first and I ignored it. Maybe I thought it was you're average UFO debunking documentary. Maybe I just thought the title sucked. I don't know. But we're only a year late. This film came out in 2013. I'm not even sure if this got posted here before and I just forgot. But it needs to be posted again because I just started watching it for the third time today. This is a goddam rabbit hole of fun house mirrors inside a maze fucking a unicorn. I may lose my mind. Anyway, read the review, download and watch. I highly recommend it...
'Is there anything new to say about UFOs and people who believe fervently they have seen one? I wouldn't have thought so, either - but the intriguing Mirage Men casts new light on the topic, unearthing the bizarre fact that the US Air Force and intelligence services have been running a campaign of disinformation about UFOs.
'Here's how it apparently works: a high-ranking intelligence agent takes an outspoken UFO conspiracy theorist into his confidence, tells him (it's usually a him) that his theories are not only on the right track but the US government is itself secretively pursuing similar theories. The agent also sprinkles some deliberate falsehoods about UFO sightings into his disclosures.
'This has the effect of seducing the UFO-believer, making him feel part of some charmed circle of knowledge, but also encouraging him to spout facts that sound absurd outside (and even within) the 'UFO community. Why would the Air Force and US government do it? To 'neutralise' the conspiracy nut, and possibly to throw America's enemies (oh, OK, Russia) off the scene about US defence development.
'Complicated, isn't it? Watching Mirage Men plunges you into a vortex of half-truths, lies, manipulation, bluffs and double bluffs. It's not quite clear who we should believe. And that's before we even confront Special Agent Richard Doty, a government official whose task it was to plant these falsehoods. Doty, a timid, deeply ordinary-looking man blinking behind large spectacles, admits to cynical trickery aimed at throwing gullible UFO believers off the scent.' (The Telegraph review & The Pirate Bay magnet link).
Algorithmic Filtering is a good enough term but I think someone needs to dumb it down so everyone can understand exactly what's going on here. I may be overstating the obvious but I like to be completely clear. People tend to ignore wild eyed conspiracy nuts screaming on the sidewalk. I also strive for simplicity and readability. Just imagine the next paragraph is written all in caps. Something like...
"With the right kind of hacking Facebook can make a story almost disappear even though everyone assumes it's a tool to give the general public complete freedom to post whatever they want. News stories can be ignored just as easily as they are in mainstream outlets. Just as Google can target ads from what's written inside your email, Facebook has software that can read your posts and bury certain topics or at least control content from becoming viral to a certain extent. This is especially insidious because the very nature of social media gives people the illusion that it's some kind of tool to give a voice to the voiceless. Nothing can be further from the truth."
'For me, last night’s Ferguson "coverage" began when people started retweeting pictures of armored vehicles with heavily armored "robocops" on top of them, aiming their muzzle at the protesters, who seemed to number a few hundred. It was the fourth night after an unarmed black man, Michael Brown, was shot by a - still unnamed - police officer after a "jaywalking" incident. Witnesses say he died hands in the air, saying "don’t shoot".
'The first night Mike Brown was shot, a friend asked on Twitter whether this would ever make the national news. It deserved to be national news as multiple significant, ongoing crises intersect at Ferguson: the loss of jobs which hit these communities worst; the militarization of US police departments; race; chronic multi-generational poverty.
'But those very factors often make it less likely such places make the news, except as trouble spots. Places to be ignored. Avoided. "We" hear it only through official statements, often dismissing local concerns, painting them as looters, thugs, troublemakers.' (Medium article).
'In this fascinating interview, physicist Tom Campbell, formerly with and now a consultant for NASA, discusses the current problems facing the scientific community's search for a Grand Unified Theory of Everything. String theory, holography, zero-point field theory, and other vogue models have failed to produce any significant results other than speculation, conjecture, and contradiction-hampered popular films such as 'What the Bleep Do We Know?' While Campbell doesn't merely criticize these theories, he offers a fresh interpretation of the root of the problem: the Double Slit Experiment.
'Campbell also discusses information theory, virtual reality, process fractals, the quantum erasure experiments, video games, and the unavoidably primary role of conscious observers within our reality.'
'Radio Free Albemuth is an American film adaptation of the science fiction novel Radio Free Albemuth by author Philip K. Dick, which was written in 1976 and published posthumously in 1985. The film is written, directed, and produced by John Alan Simon and stars Alanis Morissette in a lead role. (Pirate Bay magnet link).
'Philip K. Dick is considered by many to be one the world's greatest science fiction writers ever; as a sufferer from mental illness himself he had the ability to turn his hallucinations about the universe into an extraordinary writing career.
'During his lifetime, Dick produced an astonishing amount of prize winning novels and short stories, which were translated into more than 25 languages. His books inspired iconic movies that generated more than a billion dollars worldwide. Three of his literary works were transformed into blockbuster movies: Blade Runner, Minority Report and Total Recall.
'Dick's stories were often surrealistic fantasies in which characters discovered that their everyday world was an illusion, generated by external entities or otherwise the adventures of an unreliable narrator.
'Several years before his death, Philip started having mystical experiences that affected his everyday life. As a result, he started to wonder if what he had imagined for his stories was real and if life was just an illusion or the creation of each person's subjectivity.
'This in-depth program explores Philip K. Dick`s world, a universe full of mysteries and intrigues.'
The Battle Of Trafalgar is an account of the anti-Poll Tax demonstrations that took place on 31st March 1990. This documentary is radically different from what was presented by the mainstream media.
'Eye witnesses tell their stories against a backdrop of footage showing the days events as they unfolded. Demonstrators' testiomonies raise some uncomfortable questions. Questions about public order policing, the independence and accountability of the media, and the right to demonstrate.'
I was looking all over for this for a year and I finally found it. I just uploaded it to The Pirate Bay. You're welcome.
'Winner of the University of Toronto Film Festival, 9/11 In The Academic Community is a unique film that documents academia’s treatment of critical perspectives on 9/11 by exploring the taboo that shields the American government’s narrative from scholarly examination. Through a powerful reflection on intellectual courage and the purpose of academia, the film aims at changing intellectual discourse on 9/11 and the War on Terror.
'As well as probing the repercussions several scholars have endured due to their investigation of 9/11, this documentary provides an analysis of impairments in professional inquiry, ranging from the failure to critically reflect on terms functioning as thought-stoppers (such as “conspiracy theory”) to the structural approach that restricts inquiry to the broad implications of 9/11 while shutting out enquiry into the events of the day itself. Morton Brussel, Professor Emeritus of Physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has stated: “The main thesis of the film concerns the silence of the academic community on this vital issue. I think it is extremely important and very well produced.”
'As 9/11 served as the rationale for the Global War on Terror, the expansion of the military and intelligence complex, the invasion of other countries in violation of international law, and the curtailing of civil liberties, the film provides an inspiring demonstration of intellectual courage that will cause many scholars to reflect on the academy’s role and strength to dismantle the war system. As Alvin A. Lee, President Emeritus of McMaster University, has stated in his endorsement of the film: academics should “stand sufficiently outside society intellectually to see, understand, and interpret what is going on.' (Pirate Bay magnet link).
'Originally broadcast on Sunday 7th December 2003 - this film documents the story of Scottish musician and producer Martyn Bennett. The story of Martyn's life as a prodigious young musician and radical saviour of Scottish contemporary folk, as well as his (then) recent struggle with cancer and the extraordinary story behind Grit, his album on Real World Records, is told against the back drop of the beautiful Isle of Mull where Martyn lived and worked at the time. Grit was to be Martyn's final project before cancer robbed him of his short life at the age of just 33.'
'Richard Manning is an award-winning environmental author and journalist whose books include Against The Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization.
'Manning has just co-authored Go Wild: Free Your Body And Mind From The Afflictions Of Civilization with John J. Ratey, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
'The book asserts that we should draw on our hunter-gatherer past to live more closely to our genetic inheritance.'
Manning: "Agriculture is really the dominant system of 8,000 years, and it's more than a way of growing food. It's a way of domesticating humans and organising humans. It is 'the' system." (The Enternities podcast).
'Anthony Peake is a consciousness theorist and perhaps the ideal candidate to write A Life Of Philip K. Dick: The Man Who Remembered The Future, a new biography of a novelist obsessed with probing the nature of reality.
Peake’s book attempts to put Dick’s visionary experiences into a wider context, advancing the notion that Dick’s imagination might truly have been a precognitive gateway to the future. Peake’s biography is the first to follow the publication of The Exegesis, Dick’s own eight year attempt to write himself into an understanding of his experiences.
Terms you will hear in this interview include: “ITLADian” which acronymically refers to Peake’s first book, Is There Life After Death, and denotes his philosophy of consciousness, which he has been developing through several books; “The Daemon” relates to the theory of the higher self, a separate consciousness that may potentially exist within, and/or communicate with, the normal waking consciousness of the self. (The Enternities podcast).
'Director John Dullaghan's biographical documentary about infamous poet Charles Bukowski, Bukowski: Born Into This, is as much a touching portrait of the author as it is an exposé of his sordid lifestyle. Interspersed between ample vintage footage of Bukowski's poetry readings are interviews with the poet's fans including such legendary figures such as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Joyce Fante (wife of John), Bono, and Harry Dean Stanton. Filmed in grainy black and white by Bukowski's friend, Taylor Hackford, due to lack of funding, the old films edited into this movie paint Bukowski's life of boozing and brawling romantically, securing Bukowski's legendary status. Born Into This relies on interviews with Bukowski for biographical information instead of cheesy voiceovers, bringing the viewer even closer to the author. For example, in one amazing sequence, Bukowski rides the viewer around in the backseat of his car, telling us through his rearview mirror of his stint as a post office worker which inspired the novel, Post Office. Scenes splicing interviews with Bukowski's ex-wife, Linda Lee, and R. Crumb's comic strip panels portraying Bukowski as a sex-crazed maniac, set the tone for bawdier parts of the film. Occasionally the film displays lines of Bukowski's poetry on the screen, as reminders that he was not only a raging alcoholic with a fierce sense of humor but also a talented and beloved writer. With so much hilariously shocking footage of "Hank," Bukowski: Born Into This presents Bukowski as a troubled but classic genius.'
Okay, so I'm almost two decades too late, but I've recently been playing around with Propellerhead's ReBirth RB-338 - a wonderful little acid machine emulator...
'ReBirth RB-338 is a software synthesizer for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS 8-9 and iOS for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. It was developed by Propellerhead Software, and its first alpha version (for Mac OS) was publicly released in December 1996. Propellerhead Software ceased developing the original program in January 1999. Support for desktop versions was officially discontinued in September 2005. Shortly afterward, the ReBirth Museum Web site was launched and the last desktop version's (2.0.1) disk image was made available as a free download. Propellerhead Software continues to develop other software relating to dance-oriented computer-based music composition, including Reason, its flagship software synthesizer, as well as portable "app" versions of ReBirth.
'ReBirth emulates two Roland TB-303 synthesizers, a Roland TR-808, and a Roland TR-909 drum machine all at once. Each of the emulated devices has its own pattern selector, a feature the original devices are lacking. This allows fast switches between different musical sequences, and re-programming the TB-303 for playing different notes, for instance, is rendered unnecessary. This feature has been adopted in some of Reason's devices. ReBirth also features mixers, a pattern controlled filter (PCF) and some of the standard effects in software synthesizers like delay, compressor and distortion.
'The program also supports user modifications, which may replace the samples in the drum machine emulations and modify the GUI. There are four modifications included in the ReBirth installation by default (though the default ReBirth GUI seems to count as a modification as well).
'The virtual knobs and controls can be assigned to physical counterparts via MIDI, so knobs, modulation wheels, faders and other performance controls available on keyboards and modules can be used to shape the software sound.
'ReBirth was an early software synthesizer, pioneering this class of instruments along with Cubase, Cakewalk, Digital Performer, and Reality in the mid-1990s. The sound quality during live playback (as opposed to saving the generated sound to disk), assuming that the CPU could cope with the sampling rate, was imposed by the quality of the sound card.
'The software emulates two monophonic bass synthesizers with filters, two analog drum machines, effects, other filters, and patterns simultaneously, also processing and sending MIDI messages. This suggests highly optimized programming on Propellerhead's account, contrasting with extremely CPU - and soundcard - demanding modern soft synths and plug-ins.
'Some enthusiasts have criticized ReBirth's software emulation of the TB-303 as being an inferior copy of the genuine sound. Such criticism is common to many software synths that emulate analog synthesis (which the TB-303 featured), due to the reputedly inimitable sound of analog synthesis, and quality degraded by low-end sound cards. Despite this, Roland contacted Propellerhead Software to give it an unofficial thumbs up, which Propellerhead considered to be the Roland seal of approval.' (ReBirth Museum website & Pirate Bay torrent download).
This week the UK Treasury was caught with its pants round its ankles over its estimates of how much it'll cost to set up Scotland as an independent country. Meanwhile the mainstream media continues to do its best to try and sidestep the issue...
'The Treasury has been accused of “badly misrepresenting” key data on the costs of setting up an independent Scotland - by one of the academics it cites in its own figures.
'In a briefing paper issued ahead of today’s competing estimates on the cost - or savings - of Scottish independence, the Treasury said that creating the new government departments required would “see Scottish taxpayers fork out £2.7 billion”.
'Putting forward what he described as his “comprehensive analysis”, chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said: “The Scottish government is trying to leave the UK but it won’t tell anyone how much the set up surcharge is for an independent Scotland.”
'Yet Patrick Dunleavy, a politics professor at the London School of Economics whose research was used to come up with the figure, said that it overestimated the cost by a factor of 12.' (Independent article).
Elon Musk recently unveiled SpaceX's impressive new Dragon V2 capsule...
'In a carefully choreographed event that felt more like an pop music awards show or an Apple product launch than anything we're used to with space flight, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tonight unveiled the newest edition of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
'Dragon V2 is designed to carry up to 7 astronauts to space. In the archived livestream of the unveiling event, below, Musk explains what's under the hood. Described by its chief designer as "a true 21st-century spacecraft," the DragonV2 flight could achieve its first unmanned flight as soon as late 2015, and its first crewed flight as soon as mid-2016.' (BoingBoing article).
Is Edward Snowden a disinformation agent? What would be the motive? Could it be a test to study our reaction when confronted with the fact the NSA is actually spying on Americans? Maybe they knew it was going to come out eventually and wanted to control the leak? Or frighten everyone into submission to put a chilling effect on what we say and do online? Ease us into the truth before they trash the Bill of Rights? I'm revisiting a year old conspiracy I thought was total bunk when I first heard the idea but now it seems somewhat believable.
Remember the NSA not only listens in on conversations and stores everything we do online but they also filter, analyze, measure and interpret data much like what a corporate marketeer would do. It's basic data mining to study trends. It would be the most accurate type of poll ever conceived in human history. So they could have easily studied what most people thought about the NSA itself, our reaction to total surveillance or whether or not we even cared.
My gut feeling is most people in the US probably already took for granted the NSA was spying on them to begin with. They would fully know it wouldn't be much of a risk for Edward Snowden to come out and tell the truth (the rest of the world has always known because that's been the NSA's job all along). But for the US population they probably already calculated the psychology behind the leak and possible reaction most people would have AND predicted the outcome. You can do a whole hell of a lot with that much data. It's understanding group psychology on a mass scale and knowing how far they can put their dick in our ass.
'Now that the dust has settled after the Edward Snowden affair, it’s time to ask some tough questions about The Guardian’s scoop of the week. Snowden’s story is that he dropped a $200,000 a year job and a (very attractive) girlfriend in Hawaii for a life in hiding in Hong Kong in order to expose the evils of the NSA's Prism programme. But bits of the story are now being questioned.' (The Telegraph article).
This article came out two days ago. Maybe you've seen it. Here at Media Underground we don't post too many stories that hit the mainstream but I had to post this just to prove I'm not making this shit up. And by the way I looked all over for an article with the downside to this new app or even a realistic take but they all seemed to have very little or no problem with it. I suppose it doesn't matter anymore if we live under the umbrella of a New Techno Stasi. People are watching it live, these psychopaths are shaking it right in our face and no one cares. And you don't need an army of riot police when the people are this apathetic.
And what is it with the new techno geeks who think this shit up? Are they virtual illiterates? Have they never read Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four? Surely they've seen a few dystopian science fiction films but they probably think: "Oh those are just movies and they don't mean anything. You're paranoid. Just look at this new technology! Isn't it cool?".
It will be the same thing with the new Mark of the Beast app. Here at the Underground we don't have to believe in Jesus to understand why an implantable chip might be creepy. It's just fucking creepy, okay? I don't know why. Some people just feel like they don't want to have a tracking device on their body that's connected to a huge database. Does that mean I'm a paranoid Christian? No it just means I don't want you in my shit. I wonder how they'll spin that one. I’ll bet they’ll find a way to get everyone begging for it. People will wait in line and camp out overnight to be the first ones to get the new iBeast.
"But James if you're not doing anything wrong why would it matter to you?" I don't know. It's just weird for some reason. I can’t explain it. And why in the fuck am I the paranoid freak? How come no one thinks the people who design these surveillance tools aren’t paranoid? You built a fucking gadget that records everything in the room or tracks everyone wherever they go? What kind of person would think of that? What kind of person would buy into that? Those are the people who are never labeled as paranoid. They're just concerned with your safety. Don’t you want to be safe? Or isn’t it cool that a giant corporation is listening in to everything in your room?
'Say, you don't mind if Facebook sticks one of your earbuds into its data-mining cranium, do you?
'As Facebook said in a message posted Thursday, over the next few weeks, it's introducing an optional music, TV and movies recognition feature in the US for Android and iOS gadgets - or what the praiseworthy Register calls "fondleslabs."
'The feature will be off by default. If a user gives it permission to slurp up sound, it will tap into the mic on a mobile device and eavesdrop on whatever's playing in the background.
'The feature will then grind through its recognition machinery to identify the song, movie or TV show you're listening to.
'Facebook didn't say anything about listening in on background noise, including private conversations.' (Naked Security article).
A comprehensive final report on the future of Scotland's land has just been published, with 62 progressive recommendations, that, if implemented, would change the pattern of Scotland's land immeasurably in terms of use, ownership and funding. It is hard to overstate how important this report is or is likely to be. Of course, will Scotland - either as part of the UK or an independent nation - see these recommendations enacted? Independence will surely help but the jury is definitely out. It will take politicians and principled people with real balls to implement these much needed and long overdue reforms, as the vested interests of the large Scottish landowners and 'slipper farmers' are rich and powerful, not least because they own and control, er, the land...
It is our job (i.e. the people of Scotland) to keep this issue alive and not let this invaluable report become just another paperweight on the desks of the powerful. I live in hope.
'There should be an upper limit on the amount of land held by private owners in Scotland, a government-commissioned study has recommended.
'The Land Reform Review Group also called for a big increase in community land ownership. And the group said the current tax system should be changed.
'Tax "plays an important part in maintaining the concentrated pattern of large scale, private land ownership in Scotland," it stated.
'The Scottish government believes the country needs a fairer distribution of land ownership, and is aiming reduce the dominance of large, traditional sporting estates. The report's authors said the Scottish government should establish a Community Land Agency to facilitate negotiations between landowners and communities, with the goal of achieving a "significant increase in local community land ownership". But they warned that public funding remained "critical" and the Scottish government must ensure there is an "integrated legislative and financial support structure" to help communities in urban and rural Scotland buy and develop land and buildings.' (BBC News article & Land Reform report).
George Monbiot has just written an excellent article in The Guardian explaining why, if he lived in Scotland, he'd vote yes to rid the country of its feudal landowners...
'Power's ability to resist change: this is the story of our times. Morally bankrupt, discredited, widely loathed? No problem: whether it's neoliberal economics, tax avoidance, coal burning, farm subsidies or the House of Lords, somehow the crooked system creeps along.
'Legally, feudalism in Scotland ended in 2004. In itself, this is an arresting fact. But almost nothing has changed. After 15 years of devolution the nation with the rich world's greatest concentration of land ownership remains as inequitable as ever.
'The culture of deference that afflicts the British countryside is nowhere stronger than in the Highlands. Hardly anyone dares challenge the aristocrats, oligarchs, bankers and sheikhs who own so much of this nation, for fear of consequences real or imagined. The Scottish government makes grand statements about land reform, then kisses the baronial boot. The huge estates remain untaxed and scarcely regulated.
'You begin to grasp the problem when you try to discover who owns them. Fifty per cent of the private land in Scotland is in the hands of 432 people - but who are they? Many large estates are registered in the names of made-up companies in the Caribbean. When the Scottish minister Fergus Ewing was challenged on this issue, he claimed that obliging landowners to register their estates in countries that aren't tax havens would risk "a negative effect on investment". William Wallace rides again.' (Guardian article).
'Here we go again. The latest IPCC report, the US National Climate Assessment report, and a report published by US military researchers all recently warned us yet again about the risks associated with human-caused climate change. While the planet continues to warm, ice continues to melt, and sea levels continue to rise, the conservative media are trying to distract everyone from these scientific realities with a shiny quarter named Lennart Bengtsson.
'Bengtsson is a meteorologist at the University of Reading, who recently decided to join a charity, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). The GWPF is known for downplaying the risks posed by human-caused global warming with shoddy scientific arguments, then arguing against taking any meaningful action to address the problem.
'The GWPF has called the IPCC a "deeply discredited organisation" and worse, and has accused climate scientists of being delusional or liars. The group also recently set up a new campaigning arm, which would be free from charity regulations requiring that any information they put out is fair and as accurate as possible.' (Guardian article).
With the current system of Common Agricultural Policy farm subsidies (CAP) ending next year, the Scottish Government is currently looking at the system that shovels vast amounts of public money to landowners and 'slipper farmers' (i.e. people who own or rent land but do not even own a pair of wellies let alone farm anything, yet still receive a shitload of cash for doing fuck all).
Andy Wightman investigates:
'It’s hard to imagine the Government devising a new system of Jobseeker’s Allowance or Housing Benefit where the claimant is told they that their entitlement to such payments is just about to quadruple whether they like it or not. Indeed, with the total benefits cap set at £26,000 per year, the trend is in the opposite direction. It has long eluded me why, when the poorest in society suffer cuts and caps, some of the wealthiest not only appear to suffer no such pain, but are rewarded with largesse.
'I met a tenant farmer recently who told me that under the existing system of farming subsidies he receives £18,000 per year. That’s a fairly generous allocation. But under current proposals for the new system (to be introduced in 2015) he will receive £80,000. “I don’t need it”, he told me. He is not particularly wealthy but he doesn’t need the money. So why does it look likely that he will get it?
'The existing system of farm subsidies is coming to an end in December 2015 and the Scottish Government is currently finalising the details of the new system that will take its place and run until 2020. The existing (historic) system awarded subsidy (single farm payments - SFP) to farmers on the basis of what they received in 2000-2002. This is rather like paying tax this year on the basis of what you earned 14 years ago.' (Andy Wightman article).
I've always been a sucker for a good doomy Black Sabbath-esque riff, especially when it's accompanied with powerful female vocals (the greatly underrated Sumo album by The Superjesus springs instantly to mind), but what makes Rooftop Revolutionaries unique is the air of political activism that is present at the forefront of all of the band's lyrics.
Amongst all the tasteless, wishy-washy, celebrity obsessed posturing of much of today's musicians, it is so refreshing to stumble upon a young rock band with a purpose other than to become famous and make a shitload of cash.
The following track 'Folk Devils' sealed the deal for me and I instantly bought their album Resolute from huge corrupt corporate retailer Amazon after hearing it (I haven't 'bought' an album in ages - unfortunately sometimes you gotta use The Man to get the message out I guess)...
'Comedy series in which Charlie Brooker uses a mix of sketches and jaw-dropping archive footage to explore the gulf between real life and television.
'Ever wondered why life doesn't measure up to those youthful lofty expectations? From love and money to fear and progress, Charlie Brooker explores a different universal theme each week as this six-part series attempts to explain where it all went wrong and just how wildly the TV and movie ideal differs from life's grim reality.
'Marking the point where the mad daydreams of TV and the sorry reality of real life collide, the series employs a mixture of archive footage, sketches and interviews that will have you wiping away tears of laughter while nodding in recognition, which means you’ll probably have your eye out if you're not careful.'
Media Underground's very own James Inman was recently interviewed by Doug Stanhope for his podcast.
If you don't know who James Inman is then it's about time you found out because James is one of the funniest guys I've ever met in my life and an undoubted American National Treasure (I once spent five crazy days in the Mojave Desert with James and he recently reviewed my book Bothy Culture describing it as "a trail of bread crumbs to an unknown world").
I suspect that much of his humour is completely unintentional, which is what makes James all the more hilarious...
'Doug invites long time friend James Inman for a pre-show podcast in the green room of the KC Improv to discuss hate crimes, kinds of homelessness and being 86'd from gigs and Greyhounds. James is featured in the indie film The Unbookables and wrote the Greyhound Diary.' (Doug Stanhope podcast).
'In 2011 Barack Obama led an allied military intervention in Libya without consulting the US Congress. Last August, after the sarin attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, he was ready to launch an allied air strike, this time to punish the Syrian government for allegedly crossing the ‘red line’ he had set in 2012 on the use of chemical weapons. Then with less than two days to go before the planned strike, he announced that he would seek congressional approval for the intervention. The strike was postponed as Congress prepared for hearings, and subsequently cancelled when Obama accepted Assad’s offer to relinquish his chemical arsenal in a deal brokered by Russia. Why did Obama delay and then relent on Syria when he was not shy about rushing into Libya? The answer lies in a clash between those in the administration who were committed to enforcing the red line, and military leaders who thought that going to war was both unjustified and potentially disastrous.
'Obama’s change of mind had its origins at Porton Down, the defence laboratory in Wiltshire. British intelligence had obtained a sample of the sarin used in the 21 August attack and analysis demonstrated that the gas used didn’t match the batches known to exist in the Syrian army’s chemical weapons arsenal. The message that the case against Syria wouldn’t hold up was quickly relayed to the US joint chiefs of staff. The British report heightened doubts inside the Pentagon; the joint chiefs were already preparing to warn Obama that his plans for a far-reaching bomb and missile attack on Syria’s infrastructure could lead to a wider war in the Middle East. As a consequence the American officers delivered a last-minute caution to the president, which, in their view, eventually led to his cancelling the attack.
'For months there had been acute concern among senior military leaders and the intelligence community about the role in the war of Syria’s neighbours, especially Turkey. Prime Minister Recep Erdoğan was known to be supporting the al-Nusra Front, a jihadist faction among the rebel opposition, as well as other Islamist rebel groups. ‘We knew there were some in the Turkish government,’ a former senior US intelligence official, who has access to current intelligence, told me, ‘who believed they could get Assad’s nuts in a vice by dabbling with a sarin attack inside Syria - and forcing Obama to make good on his red line threat.' (London Review Of Books article).