3.17.2005

intermission.

gII coming soon.
sorry it's taking so long.
in the meanwhile, what the fuck:
Bush nominates Wolfowitz for World Bank
It's probably a good thing he did this; I was getting tired of sitting at home sharpening my (metaphorical) knives. It was also getting tiresome; all this nostalgic daydreaming over Seattle. Now we can see if we can still keep up with the kids out there.
On the topic:
This was somewhat interesting. Not completely relevant, and the 'warfare' analogy gets strained a bit, but whatever.

Hee hee:
Overworked-- and angry about it. The title is actually pretty inaccurate, because we get this tidbit at the end:

Despite Morimoto's non-stop schedule, he doesn't consider himself ``overworked.''

``I work for myself, and I choose to work as hard as I do,'' he said. ``In this economy, you've got to work hard to keep your job.

``I choose to work my butt off.''


That's a pretty shaky understanding of 'choice' you got there, pal.
Like 'choosing' to go work at another fast food restaurant when your manager shoves his hand down the front of your polyester workpants.
'Choosing' a decrepit apartment when your landlord increases the rent and you can't afford it.
Oh, it's true... you'll get people making this argument at babble.... justifying why an employee should be forced to wear makeup. That was a real trip. And the picture I get is... some people living life like it was a final exam, and choice is nothing but the letters A thru E on a multiple choice test.
But whatever.... the true threat is you indeed have a choice, choice to walk out of the room. It's not easy, and you'll never see it happen in the movies.

More:
Now, a quick word and disclaimer: I read the eXile, a Moscow 'alternative' paper. This is pretty interesting. In Canada, the alt. weekly has a lot of stories on marijuana legal woes, usually a self-indulgent personality piece on 'love and sex', and then substandard film reviews. In Russia, they have sections called 'Death Porn', which detail the week's bloodiest and most ludicrous murders, 'Whore-rer Stories', which are probably the equivalent of our 'love and sex' columns.
Truly, the world is a large and expansive place, if it houses us both, me and the guy that writes the Schopenhauer Award. That kind of cynicism is kind of alien to Canadians, it would probably dissolve the ink if it were ever put to newsprint west of the atlantic. And I have to say I find the occasional bits of misogyny and anti-semitism pretty fucking baffling.
But you find some really good, really insightful writing there. Hold your nose and avoid the club reviews, which are written by some aristocratic shitstain. Pay attention:
Edward Limonov. His first language is not English. I don't know why the editors couldn't bother cleaning up his grammar a little; granted, he's a famous Russian poet so maybe he's got some pull. Also, I found this interesting: he's the leader of a tough little political party called the 'National Bolsheviks'; he's done some hard time for attempting the buy weapons. The national bolsheviks have gotten the shit kicked out of them by the state... they go around staging sit-ins and throwing pies(!!!) at important politicians. These people are tough. I read one of Limonov's books recently. It wasn't great, but it had its moments. He has a nice piece on money this week.
John Dolan is a quiet professor seething somewhere in the U.S. The guy's got real bite, real self-loathing, plus he's intelligent and caustic. He wrote a wonderful little bit on Hunter S. Thompson here.
Gary Brecher aka 'War Nerd.' Okay, y'know the middle-aged guys who read too much Tom Clancy? You hate 'em? They can't get over the handling stats of F-16s and get waaay too excited by footage on CNN of cruise missiles and stuff? This guy is one of those, except he knows his history, and thinks George Bush is a twinkie, and knew that shit was getting bad in Iraq instead of being distracted by the gee-whiz fireworks on tv. In my opinion, the guy suffers from a debilitating case of Realpolitik once in awhile, but he's dead-on right about lots more. For example, his article on the RPG-7 before it got famous. Search the archives, and you see the guy writing about stuff that will happen in Iraq three months before it comes true. Oh, and remember how Republicans were calling 'em 'Freedom Fries'? 'Cause the French were 'surrender monkeys'? Here's Brecher pissing in their Freedom Onion Soup.
Slices of life: in Siberia and former junkies in Ukraine.
I was once told (on the subject of Nietzche) not to refuse to learn from assholes. It's the eXile. You don't have to invite them to your birthday party. But learn if you want to. Anybody else have good links like this?

2 Comments:

At 10:51 p.m., Blogger eric said...

this is a call....... to all my brethren

does anybody live in toronto and have copies of:
(the) amebix?
godflesh?
the swans?

as you can see, i'm on some kind of archaeological dig for old metal albums. any help would be appreciated.

i can trade... copies of... um....
(shit, i have a lot of cds...)
um, prong? muddy waters? john lee hooker? cave in? uhh... rorschach? the new spectacle album? his hero is gone?


public enemy? sleater-kinney?
minutemen?

 
At 2:30 a.m., Anonymous Anonymous said...

i'm delighted to discover that real-life broken english spoken by a russian is exactly like stereotypical broken english spoken by a russian. it gives the universe a certain wholeness.

 

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