New Smolensk tracks up on myspace

WWW--There are two new instrumental tracks of my musical project, Smolensk, up on Myspace as of today: "Endgame" is a kind of a "fourth world" instrumental with sitars-and-the-like, and "TransAtlantic" is a fragmented Apocalyptic hip-hop instrumental. Enjoy (or not)!

http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.singleplaylist&friendid=164391063

A'murka

Watching the boob tube, you could be forgiven for thinking that we're living in a Hanna-Barbera land in a Screen Gems universe.

Knowing where the human race has been, you could be forgiven in believing that there's no hope.

Studying the ancient texts, you might be led to believe that we were doomed from the start, that we're nothing but a fluke, an accident, and that we'll never change.

Believing in others isn't so hard when you realize that humanity is always yearning for a better world, a better life where love and harmony rule.

Understanding that we really are the last stand of the human race and not necessarily special, and knowing that humanity yearns for love, caring, and acceptance, is knowing that we have a good place to start...

Why the problems in Uganda? The Congo?

Oil. Both the DRC (The Democratic Republic of Congo) and Uganda (Idi Amin's former stomping ground) are fighting over Lake Alberta's Rukwanzi island, a region where Ireland's Tullow Oil has been doing geological surveys early this year that have discovered between 400 million-to-1 billion barrels of oil, one of those fossil-based substances that we're supposed to be putting behind us to end global warming. Ho hum, there's money at stake, so no dice, the planet stays imperiled so someone can make more money than God. Note the proximity of the Sudan.

The DRC and Uganda have recently stopped their resource/tribal war that raged over most of the last decade and their militaries are now cooperating thanks to...money. The Ugandan military are now stationed in parts of the Eastern Congo fighting against militias there who want autonomy and probably their own piece of the action. In sum, Tullow is just making matters worse and future conflict is all-but-inevitable, like Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer's 1874 geological survey into the Black Hills that sparked more Indian wars and rapidly consumed him and many of his own troops.

As I wrote, we know how that ended, he had it coming, and history has a way of repeating itself (rendering reincarnation unnecessary). Once they fought Native Americans and now unaccountable power and their representatives fight and pit Africans against one another over valued resources. Similar dynamics are at play in Nigeria where the U.S. has been constructing AFRICOM for future military adventurism, now training Rwandan troops, but it's all driven by greed rather than actual need, capitalism at its worst.

Yet, Tullow's Business unit manager has recently conceded that Sudan is currently off-limits because of political pressure over human rights abuses. There are limits to power--meaning some have limited power:

Asked if the company would work in countries like the Sudan where oil money is suspected of fuelling the war, he said: "There are certain countries we could not work in because of human rights issues and environmental concerns." (AllAfrica.com, 07.01.2009)

But Tullow is a small, independent firm, not a Chevron or a Shell. Their pull is significantly smaller. However, that doesn't mean that they don't want to meddle or that those other oil firms have any such qualms when the ability to do so is present.

With the ever-shrinking supply of oil and China's and India's ever-increasing demands as the factories of the world, it was time to look elsewhere, although it was known that there were oil-deposits in the region long ago.

"We finally found a location outside the Kabwoya Game Reserve. Another reason for the delay is that we found a lot of oil elsewhere. With the discovery of more oil, we have more options to choose from."

Asked why the oil in Uganda was found so late, he said when it was first discovered by Shell in the 1930s, it was considered not significant.

"They were looking for significant finds such as in Nigeria and Saudi-Arabia. But the world has moved on. Now is the time when oil has become scarce and the prices have gone up. So countries like Uganda come into consideration." (ibid)

Now the world (power) "wants" the remaining oil reserves in these African nations, regardless of the grade. Most of the wars of the 20th century were resource wars. The same is likely to be the case in the 21st century, imperiling the future of the species along with the directly-related effects of global warming.

And now we have the arrest and charges of murder against two Norwegian mercenaries who were in the DRC, ostensibly to set up their own private security firm. Both are former members of the Norwegian military, possibly from an elite unit. Private Military Herald is reporting some very curious facts about the Norwegian duo of Tjostolov Moland and Joshua French:

Evidence seized recently at the apartment the two men shared in Uganda could play a large role n the eventual outcome of the trial. During the police raid authorities found Norwegian military ID cards, counterfeit United Nations hats, employee ID badges with both the correct and false names of the two men. The employee badges are from a heretofore little known security company named Special Interventions Group (SIG) which is owned by and mostly staffed by Norwegians. During the raid on the apartment authorities also confiscated at least one rifle and a camera containing pictures of the two men on their recent travels in Africa. In one grainy image, believed to have been taken by Mr. French, Mr. Moland is seen smiling as he washes the blood believed to be that of Mr. Kasongo from the inside of the hired car. (Private Military Herald, 08.11.2009)

Additionally, Mr. French has been coy about his real identity until recently, allegedly going under the name of "John Hunt," an equally nondescript name. Both men are being charged with murder and it appears the death penalty will be expedited soon. They were apparently scouting the region where the oil is. The Congolese authorities could very well have caught the duo and the Norwegian government (and maybe even forces unknown) red-handed. One thing's certain: Africa is still the frontier of the Wild, Wild West (and China).

Tullow operations in the DRC: http://www.tullowoil.com/tlw/operations/af/congodrc/

Tullow operations in Uganda: http://www.tullowoil.com/tlw/operations/africa/uganda/

Proactive investors UK on Tallow Oil: http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/7618/tullow-oil-reports-oil-discoveries-in-ghana-and-uganda-but-falls-on-lower-revenues-and-production-7618.html

"Uganda: We are Transparent - Tullow Oil Boss," AllAfrica.com, 07.01.2009: http://allafrica.com/stories/200907020515.html

"Congo Murder Trial Of Two Norwegians Set To Begin On Friday," Private Military Herald, 08.11.2009: http://www.privatemilitaryherald.com/tag/security/

Throbbing Gristle's April 25/26th, 2009 Chicago shows

“We aren’t interested in show business, so shut the fuck up.” --Genesis P. Orridge

I had the extreme pleasure of seeing both sets of the April 25th show in Chicago this year. There were several Chicago musical "luminaries" there--most incognito--but I recognized a few here-and-there, just as I had at Psychic TV's 2004 Empty Bottle gig where I literally bumped into Genesis P. Orridge on the way out the front door for a smoke.

The Logan Square Auditorium concerts were the first time that TG had ever played the windy city on what was a four city tour (major ones only) of the United States. The last time Gristle played America, that rough beast heading towards Bethlehem was...residing in the White House, but that era's finally coming to a screeching halt as many of us suspected it would. America looks-the-grimier for it, maybe we'll avert ecological catastrophe, maybe not, but besides ourselves, we'll know who to blame: industrialists, and not the kind that play concerts. Logan Square Auditorium is a pretty old room and it was becoming apparent just a few minutes into the set that the structure of the building was never going to be the same, ever again. If you loved extreme music, this was going to be your night, and I spotted people in "Coil," "Can," "Kraftwerk," and even "Popol Vuh" (the last three being "krautrock" groups) t-shirts, something I'm certain to never see again in one place.

You didn't need to be on drugs to feel your consciousness being altered at the show, it was riveting, devastating, and in a way that's beyond rare. From the first set, which was an improvised soundscape to the late Derek Jarman's "In the Shadow of the Sun" (1980) made expressly for the group to score, to the second, comprised of a mix of oldies and new material, it was very much as the accounts of TG had always said they were: they were so powerful that they will change your consciousness forever, a completely immersive and subversive experience all around. Nietzsche said that there were only two Christians: "Jesus and St. Francis." Many have said that there was only one industrial group ever, Throbbing Gristle, and I would be hard-pressed to disagree with them. There's an unmistakable feeling when one bears witness to artistic truth, and like some kind of religious experience, it's irrefutable, and likewise, immutable. The occasion was truly historic, like having the good luck of catching the Velvet Underground.

The speaker columns were possibly some of the tallest I've ever seen and with every air-molecule vibrating violently, and the sensation within the crowd was akin to what it must be like to swim in a pool of jello, you could literally feel your innards moving. Beyond that, there was the sensation of something much bigger than the people creating the music, the sounds, and the people witnessing it, something you cannot put a price tag on, nor something you can sully with money. It was a shared and communal experience.

The link below will take you to a downloadable file of the second set, enjoy (or don't). Play at as high a volume as possible. It won't be exactly the same, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what it was like. TG allowed audience members to come into the Logan Square Auditorium without any searches. Read the quote above, and it will all make sense. Public music is public. You put it out there, or you do not, because once it is out there, it's no longer entirely yours. If money is all an artist is concerned about, it's no longer about the music or connecting with people anymore, it's just more business-as-usual, over-the-counterculture, commodified and dead at your door. Downloads don't seem so evil after that, but please support your favorite artists anyway.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/zmw4ndwkozk/Throbbing%20Gristle%202009-04-26%20Chicago.rar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_8Q7mOnn-8

Fox News caves and admits alliance with Cthuloid entities bent on destroying the planet...

Fox Nooze--Rawstory's reporting on this (slow news day), but it's old news. GWAR lead sing Oderus Urungus has been subbing for one of the talking necks there for their Red Eye show that I never watch and never will unless I'm being paid to.

From what I can tell, this is the SIXTH appearance on the Red Eye show, the last was around August 17th of this year. Oderus began appearing on the show beginning this June.

Considering that the aim of GWAR is total domination and ultimate destruction of this island earth, they should fit in just fine at Fox News. My question is this: when is Hannity and Geraldo going to become full-time members? Cthulu must be smiling, beneath the waves, somewhere off the coast of Massachusetts amidst the remnants of Atlantis (damn you Donovan).

Rumor has it that Oderus and GWAR have been rocking since 1984--untrue! The helmsman is at least 43,000,000,000 years old according to carbon dating of his member. Of course it's one of the top videos!

From June of this year: http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/22463058/oderus-urungus.htm

GreyMachine, the return of apocalypse rock amidst the apocalyps

WWW--Grey Machine is Justin K. Broadrick (Godflesh, Final, Techno Animal, Napalm Death, ICE, etc.), Dave Cochrane (Head of David), Aaron Turner (Isis), Diarmuid Dalton (Godflesh, Cable Regime, Final), and their first release together that came out earlier this month promises to conquer, especially old school Godflesh fans like myself.

After the 2002 demise of that band, Broadrick moved on to form Jesu, his new rock project, and the first releases were pretty heavy, not that I haven't liked the Eno and postpunk inflections along the way, but...

Let's be honest: the last wide-release album of Jesu ("Conqueror") wasn't very good at all, it had a couple good tunes and lacked any real dynamic and fell pretty flat creatively. The singles, small-run releases on Broadrick's Avalanche imprint, and EPs since then have been a significant improvement even without the heft, the heaviness. If you don't like really heavy experimental music that eschews the rules of genre you won't like this, not that I care.

Apparently Justin was feeling a little wounded by the criticisms coming from old fans like myself and decided to show everyone that he's just as capable of apocalypse rock as he ever was and the first reviews are confirming that Grey Machine's "Disconnected" is that very thing, so it's time to breathe a sigh of relief. A review is forthcoming at this site, but have an ear-bleeding, soul-destroying listen of some song samples here in-the-meantime: http://www.last.fm/music/GREYMACHINE .

"Vultures Descend" is absolutely stunning in itself and also reminiscent of some of the best output by the Swans. Someone has to do the soundtrack to the apocalypse, and that man is Justin K. Broadrick along with his numerous collaborators. Projects like this transcend the boundaries of mere rock music. Enjoy (or don't).

Purple Mays, all in my brain...

WWW--You know, who woulda thunk? Me. Millions who aren't pathetically naive. Billy Mays, a not-a-man who was a carnival barker for fifteen years of his unnatural life, and who hawked a bunch of products I'm not going to mention, was a coke-head. Well, duh.

Far be from me not to speak ill of the dead. This one's worthy of it. And besides: he's dead Jim, he can't feel anything, just like most of corporate America and Wall Street, hence the need for all the coke, hookers, amphetamines, alcohol (sorry, they don't make ludes anymore in America, but that's not good fuel for these folks), and whatever other addictions can fill that gaping-hole in their souls.

When did it all start, and who cares? For over fifteen years, this not-a-man has yelled at me and America, blaring his inanities to sell crap nobody ever wanted or need for rich asshole investors to...get richer. No, I don't think that's a good thing, nope. Again, I'm obviously "just jealous," so please bear with me...

It's doubtful that the autopsy report's going to be impeached--ever--even if someone gets sued or bribed to do it, we now know he had metabolites of cocaine in his system, it's out. Science can be a tad tenacious like that, as seen on TV. Yet, his family and backers are scared shitless about the stiff's image, making statements that contradict--I don't know--a valid autopsy report by the accredited and licensed Hillsborough County medical examiner? You know, a mean guy, so he's probably just doing his job and was just telling us the truth, so money is surely at-stake somewhere in all of this.

"We were totally unaware of any non-prescription drug usage and are actively considering an independent evaluation of the autopsy results," Mays' family said in a statement.

The statement said the family was "extremely disappointed" by the release of the information by the medical examiner's office. The report "contains speculative conclusions that are frankly unnecessary and tend to obscure the conclusion that Billy suffered from chronic, untreated hypertension, which only demonstrates how important it is to regularly monitor one's health."...

Longtime friend and colleague AJ Khubani, founder and CEO of the "As Seen on TV" product company Telebrands, said Mays never exhibited any signs of drug use and was always prepared for his many commercial [sic] shoots.

"I'm just shocked," Khubani said. "He was the model of a responsible citizen." ("Autopsy: Cocaine contributed to Billy Mays' death, AP, 08.07.2009)

Mmmm-hm. Life's full of disappointments, or didn't you get the memo? I know I did. Hey, if I was all coked-up, I'd be "prepared"most of the time too, locked-and-loaded, baby. Mr. Khubani: define what a "model" and responsible citizen is for me some time. I'm assuming it means making you rich(er).

No, I would never think that someone yelling at the top of their lungs showing absurd and abnormal degrees of stamina for the majority of his adult life was taking stimulants, no. Considering that the examiner has listed cocaine as a "contributor" (no, not that kind, silly) to his death (make more sense now?), that he did cocaine just a few days before his departure from this dimension, and the fact that his head appeared poised for explosion since the public first heard of him from all that yelling, I'd say he was at least using the drug off-and-on much of his life. You could say he was probably driven to it, but that he was wrong-headed appears pretty obvious to these eyes and ear, and these ears are still ringing.

Whether he abused the drug is another story, but clearly the man had lifestyle problems. Mays' family made a public statement:

We are extremely disappointed by the press release released by the Hillsborough County medical examiner's office. We believe it contains speculative conclusions that are frankly unnecessary and tend to obscure the conclusion that Billy suffered from chronic, untreated hypertension, which only demonstrates how important it is to regularly monitor one's health.

Given the hectic nature and pace of Billy's life, especially during the past 10 months of his exhaustive travel across the country, it was not surprising to hear that hypertension was the cause of his death.

We were totally unaware of any non prescription drug usage and are actively considering an independent evaluation of the autopsy results. As those who were close to Billy knew, he had been in chronic pain for more than two years and was about to have his third hip surgery in 18 months.

His use of prescription pain medication for his hip condition was guided by his physician and was at recommended usage levels. This has been a very difficult period for our family and we appreciate the respect for our privacy that Billy's many clients, fans and members of the media have extended.

We appreciate your continued thoughts and prayers for the family and will not have any immediate comment beyond this statement.

If you think that I don't pity Mays and his family or mourn him, you're sadly mistaken, I do. The bastards that made a mountain of money (and concomitantly polluted our minds, bodies, and our world, and still are right now) took this poor little man--this barker--and used him up until there was no more to take. Now he is gone, and the madness continues on, but for how long? Until they've made our world uninhabitable.

So, it's not that I hated Billy Mays the man, it's that I hated the image he had to project out there at-the-behest of a bunch of evil businesspeople and investors. Bearing witness to his death is almost like watching the statues falling in the former Soviet Union: Crash, crash, crash. Watch the Shibboleths fall, one-by-one. Historians say that the late Richard M. Nixon was a barker for the gambling-tents during the Great Depression. Makes sense.

"Autopsy report: Cocaine use contributed to death of Billy Mays," 10 Connects.com, 08.07.2009: http://www.wtsp.com/news/mostpop/story.aspx?storyid=111143&provider=top

"Report of Diagnosis and Autopsy on William Darrell Mays, File 09.04082," Hillsborough County, Florida, Medical Examiner Department, conducted 06.29.2009: http://download.gannett.edgesuite.net/wtsp/pdfs/2009/mays-autopsy.pdf

"Toxicology Report, Mays, William Darrell ... ," 07.27.2009: http://download.gannett.edgesuite.net/wtsp/pdfs/2009/mays-toxicology.pdf

2012, redacted

I finally understand the connection between 2012, the war in Iraq, and Aztec religion:
the world will be plunged into eternal darkness if Quetzalcoatl isn't fed warrior-victims.
It all makes sense now.
Gee.

Rush Limbaugh is: Anthony Zerbe, Omega Man's "Mathius"

CPAC--If you don't have to shave your knuckles (or wear gloves on them since you drag them when you "walk"), you know that the Republican Party has no solution to the current economic crisis and that they're now going to have to settle for White Supremacists, market extremists, the intellectually challenged, and worse, for their political base.

But enough about America's ruling class and trailer trash: This was a self-inflicted wound, like all the rest.

With no real leadership or vision within their party, they're degenerating--it's hard to believe they could fall lower, I know--but they are. The best indicator of their imminent collapse? Rush Limbaugh's ascendency as leader of the GOP. When you have a nationally syndicated conservative radio commentater running your party, and when you have a scab plumber advising you on your national strategy as a party, you're basically fucked, you have no future staying the same and acting the same. Their solution? The aforementioned.

Logically, this can only be a good thing for Americans and the world, but the GOP are still going to be a big problem that has to be taken care of, and they're being very open about their intentions to derail the process again. Luckily, this is a self-correcting process--voters will continue to rebel and leave the Republican Party in-droves as it becomes clearer that they have no vision for the future and no solutions to problems that are largely their own creation. They will continue to lose seats in Congress without actually changing with the times.

That they won't change, and that they're making the same mistakes that they did in the 1930s makes them the world's largest Civil War reenactment outside of punk rock, that other Shibboleth of the right. This means that--once again--truth is out the window for them, it's messy and inconvenient, so out it goes from the chamber pot.

Do we give them what they want? Of course not, that's why we're in the current economic crisis, an ongoing constitutional crisis (the reason investigations and convictions are necessary), and two worthless wars. If President Obama doesn't address these and many other problems forcefully and directly, we may never recover as a nation. Does the GOP really want to own the fact that they created an economic crisis, then made it terminal? Apparently, the answer is a positive one: "YES!" Isn't it nice to say "yes"? In the backdrop, behind the curtain, Rush Limbaugh keeps declaiming that he's "not the leader" of the Republican Party.

Yet, from watching even just a sliver of the coverage from CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference, begun during the Watergate hearings), it's clear that Limbaugh really is the de facto leader of the Republican Party, not that one guy...uh, what's his name? Black guy. Anyone? Right, Michael Steele. Why wouldn't Rahm Emanuel (aka "Dutch Schultz") want to go to the trouble in pointing out the obvious last week? Like the Bolsheviks, Limbaugh saw a power vacuum and he's exploiting it, even abusing it in publicly flexing that power and forcing the de jure leader of the GOP into recanting his criticisms? That Steele recanted today is just underscoring the obvious.

A few Limbaugh highlights from CPAC that aren't getting much attention:

..."I learned that Fox, God love them, is televising this speech on the Fox News Channel, which means, ladies and gentleman, this is my first ever address to the nation. [Applause] Now, I have someone in back taking phone numbers. In fact, I would like to introduce to you my security chief, a man who runs all of my security. His name is Joseph Stalin. Joseph, would you please --

[Laughter ] I am safe from any liberal attack, in public, because they would be afraid of offending Stalin. [Laughter]..."

And: ..."But don't make the mistake at the same time of feeling liberated as thinking we're better and we can do better as a minority. Because we're not a minority. And if you start thinking of yourselves as a minority, you're going to be defensive. And you'll allow the majority to set the agenda and the premise and you're responding to it. The American people may not all vote the way we wish them to, but more Americans than you now live their lives as conservatives in one degree or another. And they are waiting for leadership. We need conservative leadership. We can take this country back. All we need is to nominate the right candidate. It's no more complicated than that. [Applause]"...

And, very tellingly:

..."There are certain realities. We don't have the votes in Capitol Hill to stop what's going to happen. What we can do is slow it down, procedure, parliamentary procedures, slow it down and do the best we can to inform the American people of what's really on the horizon. I know it's going to be tough. At some points, I don't think it can happen even right now."...

And, ..."So what is so strange about being honest to say that I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed? [Applause]"...

And, thankfully, there is no economic crisis, the Democrats are lying that there is one, and the GOP had nothing to do with it at all, so move on: "

..."President Obama is so busy trying to foment and create anger in a created atmosphere of crisis, he is so busy fueling the emotions of class envy that he's forgotten it's not his money that he's spending. [Applause]"...

As you can tell, there were a lot of "crowd pleasers" (jokes for the humor-impaired) in there for what's becoming a smaller and smaller voting base for the Republican Party. Limbaugh's comments aren't going to go anywhere in making that base any larger, and his exhortations for congressional GOP incumbents (for now) to slow down the process has extraordinary risks, especially when that obstructionism is found to be an incontrovertible truth as to why the crisis has deepened. That's enough to kill any political party, fragmenting it in a constellation of third parties, if not a new and singular one.

And up on that stage, speaking at the very end of the CPAC sing-along ("Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport!"), Limbaugh just looked and sounded weirder than he ever has. It's not just that he's totally out-of-step with reality or how the history of ideas and their rejection or acceptance works (see Fukuyama piece below), it's that he's disconnected from the very idea of causality itself. Hey, don't go changin', it has the rest of us elated at the prospects.

No, what CPAC and Limbaugh all appear to be are the mutants from the Omega Man, suggesting pathetically and nihilistically that, "There is no solution!!" just as actor Anthony Zerbe tells Charleton Heston towards the end of the story, another permutation of Richard Matheson's apocalyptic story, "I Am Legend." Conversely--conversely?!--the words coming from Limbaugh's mouth could almost have been voiced at CBGB's in 1976, or any number of heroin "shooting-galleries" over the last 75 years. That's the GOP: so punk you can taste it, and the taste is as bad as you imagined it would be. According to them, it's capitalism or death for the human species, just reminding us that they have their cause and effect mixed-up again.

The Bug-London Zoo (2008) album review

Kevin Martin almost never fails to surprise, and this new-installment of "The Bug" project featuring several Jamaican and UK dancehall and dub poetry artists is just another example of his prowess at creating something new and astonishing musically.

The differences between his first "Tapping the Conversation" (1997, with DJ Vadim), 2003's "Pressure," various EPs and 2005's "Killing Sound" compilation of hardcore electronic reggae, are vast here. The reason? A bigger budget, meaning Martin had more time to refine and actually be in the same room with the vocalists rather than through tape/disc-trading and internet transmissions, then pasting it all together at the end. Face-to-face collaborations tend to work best.

"London Zoo" edges more towards a dub sound without as much of the extreme hardness of earlier "Bug" releases, and vocals take more of a center stage role. Also different is how melodic and more expressive the vocals by the singer/MCs are, which makes for a very lively sound that must be heard to be appreciated. Still, to many this is going to sound very hard-edged and extreme. For the initiated, it's a new direction with a lot of dub layering and subtlety that could very well snag more mainstream reggae and dub fans.

"Murder We," already very popular in underground listening-circles as a single has vocalist Ricky Ranking very close to singing a mix of reggae and American R&B. While this isn't necessarily new in other contexts, it is here in a decidedly electronic environment. Ranking's vocal on the superb "Judgment" has an energy and a power that could quiet any remaining doubters and skeptics. But it's Warrior Queen who steals the show here with cuts like "Insane," and "Poison Dart," both of which can be marked as some of the more subversive cuts on the album for all the right reasons. When she raps, "What's wrong with the world? ...Has the world gone mad?," and when Ricky Ranking sings "...People killing themselves over [it]," they're both spot-on about the present state of things internationally.

The music production here is much warmer and inviting than on previous releases which could open things up more for this project of extreme electronics melded with the organic singing of authentic Jamaican and British dub and reggae vocal talent. Holding-up the UK side is the return of dub poet Roger Robinson whose wordplay is a real treasure to behold. His voice and delivery have a very powerful emotional side to them, existing comfortably within the musical environments Martin creates. Robinson's words and delivery are transcendent as always.

You have to admit, it's a good time for dubstep and hardcore dub and dancehall fans these days. These could be the outlines of the next big thing, the new punk, the new psychedelia. Get it before the final crash comes, it's good end-times (for Western capitalism anyway) music. Now, let's get Lee Perry on some sides before Babylon falls!

Religulous (2008)

You know, Bill Maher is a smarmy, egomaniacal asshole, a complete jerk. I wasn't going to bother watching this movie when my brother called me about wanting to see it. We almost never see movies together, maybe every five-years-or-so. What did I have to lose?

So I went, and my brother showed-up about five-minutes-in claiming it took a flying saucer to get him there--something like that. Then he started shouting at the screen unintelligibly, throwing popcorn everywhere like a Hunter S. Thompson sidekick. Anyway, I would have been missing-out had I not taken him up on seeing this very provocative movie.

I can't say that I expected much: Maher's HBO shows like "Politically Incorrect" and "Real Time," are reasonably popular but also tend to showcase Maher's egocentricity and brand of reactionary assholism. The comedian frankly reminds me of his personal friend Dennis Miller whose long-lost career as a comedian caused him to go begging around at Fox News for a job at...being who he really was all-along, an arch-conservative, reactionary asshole. Maher strikes me as different, but with tendencies towards the same direction as his pal Miller. It's isn't that I don't agree with him much of the time; it's how he tends to come-off, which is as a cocksure materialist Hollywood asshole.

And yet, here in his film "Religulous," he's correct again and a much more restrained kind of asshole.

The film is a kind of documentary with more than a few nods to Michael Moore's style, interspersing the interviews with rapid-fire retorts from Maher and company in the form of excerpts from cruddy Hollywood biblical epics (think Cecil B. Demille), dorky religious "educational" films, and from news archives. It's a very effective style, especially when Maher goes as far as to have text-comments responses and observations on the screen when he's sparring with various religious idiots of various persuasions. This makes for a very funny approach that gets a lot of well-earned laughs for their wit and concision. At times, Maher competes with Lenny Bruce in how astute and unique his observations are, but like Lenny, he has similar limitations.

But how can you beat those Christian creationist-themed museums and amusement parks? One can imagine hipsters running-roughshod over each other to get into the places to experience them in an "elevated" state of consciousness...

One might call the film's approach to its subject unfair, but this is also entertainment, let's face it. It's hard to say how much input the oddly-attired director Larry Charles (Borat) had in all of this, though it appears that most of the time all he and Maher had to do was to concoct a few meetings and scenarios, write a few questions, and let their camcorders record what happened after that. This is a simple and economical way of film-making in many respects since the comedian has a decades of improvisational experience. Several reviews have stated that Maher picked straw-man opponents who were easy targets for a man who's done stand-up comedy and media appearances for 30 years, yet you don't tend to get this impression watching the film. That's a red herring argument. He approached believers, the main criterion. It's about faith, stupid.

Yes, sometimes one could say that Maher's "rude" and even "pointed" in his interrogations (sorry, couldn't pass on that one), that he's "unfair" and "biased" in his sense of "superiority," but they're simply missing-the-point. It's doubtful that very many religious thinkers and fundamentalists were going to talk to him at all, so he took a more "populist" approach and went out to talk to the rank-and-file, really the most important part of religion as a problematic part of human life and culture.

One specific interview with a UK Pakistani rapper Aki Nawaz (aka Propa-Gandhi) who extols religious intolerance and war makes a good argument for the renewal of Paki-bashing, though his his subject does a much better job at undermining his arguments than Maher does. Nawaz is clearly an idiot and a hypocrite, but you have to show these people for what they are. Some have written that Maher won't let the bizarre rapper get a word in edgewise, but when you see the lyrics to his raps on a split-screen, it's forgivable. It's one of the few times he does it in the entire film.

This is what's so impressive about the movie itself: Maher is generally known for being much more hyperbolic and confrontational than this, and he tends to let his subjects skewer themselves, often just posing a few reasonable questions and listening to the absurdities flowing from them. Granted, when he hits, he hits hard, but he's not being unfair here. The man has certainly grown and I'm impressed.

But then, there's the faults in the film (though they're few): Maher does a strange thing and trots in Jewish Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss of the Neturei Karta sect who's against the existence of the state of Israel (an "anti-Zionist") on theological-grounds. This is where Maher strays badly, as there's an inverse to the rabbi in the far-right Israeli and international Jewish community's--and strongly religious--reasoning of a sole Jewish stake in Palestine. This is just one example of the comedian's arch-conservatism inside and outside of the film. Indeed, Maher shows us how truly bizarre and wrong Judaism and most other major faiths are, but he makes an exception with the rabbi, exposing his own very slanted bias about the Palestinian question. This isn't to say that he's "wrong"--his very strong opinions for a Jewish state are valid after the Holocaust. They ring true, as Western history has amply illustrated. As a matter of fact, the core of his own reasoning here is more-than-valid, and Jews have good cause to aspire to statehood for logical security reasons. But he's making a very odd exception here that's troubling, and like most Jewish statists, he goes too far, just as Yisroel Dovid Weiss and his inverted opponents. When Maher walks-out on him, it's unsurprising, and I don't support his views here at all.

Yet, with 1 billion Muslims in the world, and 14 million Jews, his opinion is not unwarranted. What he misses, however, is that Israel is still being used a client state to control, destabilize, and divide the Middle East for geopolitical aims. Once it was the Romans, now it's the Americans and the rest of the West, hungry for cheap oil. In some ways, he misses his own point underscored at the end of the film. Whether his omissions are intentional or just a matter of running time, or just too many roads to go down, is the question. One could go on-and-on about the Palestinian question, and Maher probably saw a real quagmire in his section on Judaism and so just stuck to more superificial-aspects of how wacky the Orthodox version of the faith really is (trust me, it is). For the record, this writer believes that Israel has the right to exist, as does a Palestinian state and that it should be brokered diplomatically rather than through violence by all parties.

Even with its problems, Maher and Charles have made a very accessible argument for why religious belief is a "plague" (stated not by Maher, but by a Vatican astronomer) infecting humanity.

One of his finest-points is about Islam: like Christianity, it's undeniably a conquest faith that nowadays has very little tolerance for the beliefs of others on almost any level, and that's coming directly from the Koran. Judaism is essentially the same these days in its statist incarnation, but a quick look at the Torah (the "Old Testament" to Christians) offers-up numerous examples of conquest and even genocide by the tribes of Israel.

What's so interesting and enjoyable about Religulous are the gaggle of morons he interviews and just how obviously hypocritical (and possibly nuts) many of them are. His interview with Senator Mark Pryor, a faux-Democrat from Arkansas, must be seen to be believed. At one point, Pryor admits, "There's no I.Q. test to be a senator." No shit? There should be, even trumping election results if they don't pass. While we're at it, how about a mandatory psychological examination for office-holders as well? The audience I watched the film with all laughed very heartily over Pryor's statement, their chortles coming from the news of our current economic crisis and the last eight years of misgovernance. Hey, people still went to the movies when the Great Depression was on, so why can't we?

Perhaps the biggest hole in the film is the exclusion of other major religions, though they're tapped by the film by-implication. Surely, though, we could have seen how ridiculous many Eastern religions are, especially Hiduism with its castes and absurd rules and laws dictating behavior. There are so many other examples as to be dizzying, and that's part of the answer. Maher goes after the "worst offenders," the major world religions. He might have included Buddhism, though it really does struggle to match the absurd credulities required to be a follower of Islam and Christianity.

Maher's most successful accomplishment is in illustrating that religion has enslaved humanity to the few for millenia, and he deserves a great deal of credit for stating it where he states it. The majority of us know about the Inquisition, the witch hunts, the crusades and Islamic holy wars that spread the faiths across the globe, and violently more often than not. We all know this. Truisms don't need repeating. That's one of the main messages of the film itself--the toxic-effect religion has had on humanity is well-known from the historical record, and talking with biblical scholars isn't going to shed much more light either as they tend to agree generally with Maher on the oddness of literalism and fundamentalism in religion rather than a symbolical or allegorical reading of the "sacred texts." No film--even one five-hours-long--could adequately address all of this. Good job, and we "non-believers" have a lot of work to do.