Friday, January 09, 2009

Hollywood and Fine - Marshall Fine Blog � Blog Archive � I hate myself for loving ‘24′

Hollywood and Fine - Marshall Fine Blog � Blog Archive � I hate myself for loving ‘24′

"Man, I love me some “24.”


I love the headlong pace. I love how much action, how many moments of confrontation, life-or-death decisions, jeopardy and fight-to-the-finish situations they pack into each 42-minute episode."

yup.  easily the most ideologically dangerous show I enjoy...

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

The Stooges mattered to me at a time when bands REALLY mattered to me. I still read Rolling Stone and SPIN regularly. I still sought out new music. I got Raw Power in high school. CBS nice price cassette. It was good. better than bowie. then freshman year of college I discovered the first album. Self-titled. That was the stuff. That wah guitar. There are, in my mind, two ways to use a wah pedal - like Jimi Hendrix or like Ron Asheton. Then, Oh My GOD, Funhouse. Calling from the funhouse, with my song... The best album ever made by white people. These records, this band, brought me to Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, Sugar Shack, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and damned near everything that meant anything to me from the time I was 16 till, well, forever... There was a reunion tour recently and I didn't make enough of an effort to go. The reunion album - well, it just made me kinda sad - the new mudhoney album sounded to me like what i wanted a new stooges record to be... but I saw the dvd - and they rocked live - the old stuff still worked - and they were having fun... God I hope I have people like that in my life to have fun with years down the road... Some people say you can tell a lot about a person by asking, "The Beatles or The Stones?" I'd rather ask, "The Stooges or The Velvet Underground?" and for me, the answer is always, "The Stooges." ugh. I wanna be yr dog.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Marginal Revolution: Department of No

Marginal Revolution: Department of No:

"Of course they want a bailout but this is for me not a priority.� Given the new distribution of wealth, arguably we need more culture for lower-income people and less culture for the rich.� I don't think the old distribution of wealth is coming back anytime soon.

It's something to watch when the egalitarian and elitist tendencies of modern liberalism clash so strongly.� When it comes to high culture it's like this:� 'I don't think they should have so much money, but I sure like what they spend their money on.'� Yet if deflationary pressures are going to benefit lower class individuals with jobs, something has to give and that is, in part, the discretionary arts spending of the wealthy."

Interesting discussion in the comments...
some things for those of us in the arts to think about...
I hope to make theatre around the fire in the tent cities of the future - but I'm an optimist.

Jonathan Tasini: Conspiracy of Silence: Wage Collapse Caused Crisis

Jonathan Tasini: Conspiracy of Silence: Wage Collapse Caused Crisis:

"Basically, the basic bargain was roughly this--if you worked hard and became more productive, you would see that sweat of the brow in your wages. And from the post-war era until the 1970s, that deal basically held--as you can see from the lines that are basically close together until the 1970s.

Then, the lines diverge--dramatically. You can see it yourself. If the lines had continued to track closely together as they did prior to the 1970s, the MINIMUM WAGE would be more than $19 an hour. THE MINIMUM WAGE!!!"


Class War - the only war worth fighting - every other war is just them using us to fight each other...

I think things are going to get worse before they get better and the purposeful misunderstanding and misrespresenting of our current crisis is not helping.
The folks at the top of the pyramid are still concentrating on sucking any excess from those at the bottom.

I nearly got into a fight with some rich dude at Notsuoh on Jim's birthday. When I said that no C.E.O. works 800 times harder than I do he treated it like a personal affront. The idea that maybe the system is rigged and the elites exploit the middle and punish the lower he took as some kind of personal attack on his worth. maybe it was. if it wasn't at first, well, then, after he responded like a dick, it certainly became one... it took a cute 22 year old and a passed j. to diffuse the situation...

Spreading the wealth is the only way you richies are gonna get to keep even a portion of yrs... keep demanding it all and eventually we will rise up and take our share.