blogdisease.com

There’s no time like the present for silence. Sound like a radical, alien concept? Then check this out: Saturday, June 3, is Tricycle Magazine’s annual Change Your Mind Day. It’s a groovy way to get your meditation on, with events happening across the country. Check the Web site for regional activities, and also Tricycle’s handy [...]

In response to my post on hatred and activism, Greta wrote a terrific rant about Gen X and cynicism (a portion is quoted below). I feel her pain, especially when it comes to The Clash selling “London Calling” to Jaguar. The question becomes, how does a generation whose aesthetic is irony cope with the ironic [...]

The ghost of Tibor Kalman, whose tenure at the helm of Colors Magazine revitalized and re-appropiated the language of commercial graphics for social change, seems eerily present behind the creative campaign of Dropping Knowledge. Like a Zen koan, Dropping Knowledge is part playful pun, part serious business. We drop a dime like anonymous tipsters to the cosmic dharma police on nonsensical, idiotic social practices, and we download knowledge like hidden viruses inside protein shell ad phrases.

The mutants are merging with nature; as ciphers for us, they are hybrids. Typically in sci-fi, hybrids are part machine. In the case of X-Men, the characters are elemental or animalistic. In a sense they are the earth force re-balancing the human realm, which resists the mutants and insists on instituting a policy of “curing them” (made possible by a genetically engineered serum). Unlike typical sci-fi, the conflict is not mediated by technology, but rather by biology (and bio-science). As the struggle ensues between the mutant factions, the battle goes mano-a-mano, albeit the group that harnesses the perfect balance between the forces of nature and human prevails.

I’m almost embarrassed to say it because of all the hippie/stoner connotations of it, but Dark Side of the Moon remains one of the most powerful influences on my musical life, and I’m sure I’m not alone. The recent re-revision of space rock with slide guitar is pure Pink Floyd. And when I inadvertently downloaded a Floyd bootleg on Acquisition, to my pleasant surprise the live recording of Dark Side was really damn good, and eerily contemporary. They way David Gilmore strolls along with minimalist chord progressions, with Mason inserting keyboard textures and sound montages, it felt as if it could totally be playing today in a Brooklyn loft at 4:00 AM. When I get around to it (soon, I promise), I’ll be podcasting some contemporary bands that have the Dark Side sensebility: flying through space in your private RV while stoned on peddle steele.

Dispatch from the guerrilla information war: my pals over at Stay Free (a great source for media criticism) have been monitoring the ever-confusing phenomena of “Astroturf” groups (bogus grassroots activist fronts set up by PR firms to confuse messages by corporate critics). The latest is a row over a bogus organizations set-up by the [...]

My colleague over at the New Mexico Media Literacy Project, Christie McAuley, wrote the following letter to Adbusters. I think it is right on, and speaks for itself. I want to qualify this as constructive criticism. I have loved Adbusters for many years but have been somewhat disenchanted with its direction. It used to [...]

A friend once said that if you don’t envision a future, you will live in someone else’s. This is why I like the following piece of media produced by Free Range Studios (the folks who made The Meatrix). It’s a news dispatch from the future on how we averted climate catastrophe, albeit some of the [...]

I like the vibe of this (despite its male aggression undertones). It makes me feel like there is something in the air. Via Crooks and Liars.
YearlyKOS

Sphere: Related Content

OK, so Roger Waters is a bit of a cynic. But you don’t have to be. The folks at MySpace have a really cool feature, A Brick in the Toilet. There’s lots of little, practical features to get your ecology on. Plus you can see a preview of El Presidente Gore’s new missive: An Inconvenient Truth. Speaking of which, I haven’t seen the film, but I wonder about the disaster film aesthetic. Can anyone tell the difference between The Day After Tomorrow and an infomercial on global warming?

Boing Boing reports on an interesting DIY motivational poster site. Below is the poster I made with a photo I shot in Mexico City:

This reminds my of a brilliant site (thanks Scud) of some zany culture jammer and/or closet nihilist, who makes “Demotivator” posters at dispair.com. What demotivates you?
MOTIVATION. Psychology tells us that motivation- true, [...]

As mentioned in an earlier post, US soldiers in Iraq are armed with more than weapons of violent destruction: they have iMovie, Windows Movie Maker and who know what else cheap digital media software. Combine that with boredom, a rich moving image vernacular and the military’s sick sense of humor, and you get this hilarious [...]

Warhol would be proud. Tila Tequila caught my eye (literally), giving me pause about the nexus of celebrity culture and social networks. Her bio reads like a manifesto of post-irony– the sad, commodified afterlife of punk’s impact on capitalism.
As you can see in the comments below from her MySpace page, she bemoans the shallowness of [...]

Beware of bogus phone company reform front group:
Via Free Press.
The Nation website has been running an ad recently urging readers to “say no to government regulation of the internet.” Please don’t click on it. It’s a deceptive campaign created by high-priced consultants and paid for by the cable and phone industries to build opposition to [...]

The Log of War
Jon Stewart on phone spying. As usual, very funny and right on.
Via Crooks and Liars.

Sphere: Related Content

As heirs to Atlantic Rim culture (with its antecedent in the Mediterranean), we are the biggest drama queens in the universe. Whether it’s as Christians or followers of secret historical conspiracies like the Holly Grail, we love grand historical narratives, and adore placing ourselves as key protagonists. Talk about self-importance! I’m no expert on the [...]

I clicked over to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and donated $20 because they are active on a lot of issues I support, but in particular they are advocating on our behalf for our right to privacy and are at the forefront of the telcom-NSA struggle. Please support them:
http://www.eff.org/

Sphere: Related Content

OK all you radioheads, here is the latest dispatch from Thom York: he has a solo album coming out in July, called The Eraser. It sound very electronic. That makes me happy. What follows is the latest cryptic dispatch from the yorkster himself:
this is just a note to say that something has been [...]

I’ve seen this float around the Internet a few times, but when it showed up in my email box today, it was a nice reprieve from the daily malaise one normally fines in the news. I actually feel for the guy. I can’t spell worth crap, but I think I would at least proof my [...]

A bunch of us are boycotting Verizon, ATT and Bell South for violating our civil rights. In case you didn’t know, Cingular is owned by ATT. To facilitate this I have created a MySpace group to share info and letter writing copy. You can visit the group here: MySpace Boycott Verizon page. If anyone can [...]