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As stated previously, I’m in Rome this week so I am unable to see the American Hardcore until I get back to NYC. Any early reviews? Please post in the comments if you have seen it. Good or bad.

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Many people say they love Rome, but I wonder which one it is they like. As Rome’s most atypical tourist, last night someone asked me if I enjoyed the ruins and I said that I didn’t much care for them, but that I was struck by how its historical district resembles [...]

OK all you subculture fiends, B.I.K.E. is an awesome film about bicycle clubs and is apparently quite good. If you are in NYC, there is a screening on Tuesday at MOMA (you can get tickets here). The info follows:
PopRally presents a special screening of the film B.I.K.E. featuring an introduction by the filmmakers, a display [...]

Image from Graffiti Basics show
Review: Brooklyn Museum’s exhibit, “Graffiti Basics.”
“You want information? Take a look at this city, Maya. The graffiti on the walls, the crazy shit the bums and crackheads and wild kids come out with. This is the underground data exchange; the infranet. The city is the hardware and the people are [...]

I feel like I’ve been a bit of downer the past week, so I’d like to pause the action for some shallow entertainment and a little side trip to a well-known stoner trip space, the age-old mash-up between the Wizard of Oz and Dark Side of the Moon. In case you are one of the [...]

“A modern revolutionary group heads for the television station.”

Abbie Hoffman
In terms of Web time, at this point it’s too late to mention Bansky because he’s everywhere on the Net these days. And I don’t want to seem like I’m a mirror of Boing Boing’s content when the truth of the matter is that they [...]

I don’t mean this as hyperbole, but I believe it is our duty as U.S. citizens to watch Spike Lee’s enthralling documentary, When the Levees Broke. No worries if you don’t have HBO. A conscientious citizen has sliced it up into 26 ten-minute segments viewable on YouTube. Though a bit awkward, the inconvenience will hardly [...]

And now for some comic relief (and I mean relief), H/T to Will.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1047157044159649860

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Update: I’m making this post sticky for a little while because there is an interesting discussion in the comments about racism and punk, including a remark by Alice Bag. I’m hoping for more input, so please jump in! Newer posts are below.
To paraphrase The Clash, this is a public service announcement. I’m a bit concerned [...]

At least one journalist took Good Night, and Good Luck seriously. Keith Olbermann, who I remember as a wacky sportscaster in LA back in the ’80s, seems to be channeling Edward R. Murrow these days. All the power to him. It’s rather shocking to see these anti-Bush views presented in the corporate media, but [...]

The following is a response to the recent spread in Italian Vogue, “State of Emergency.” For links, visit Boing Boing.
A quick and dirty way to alter consciousness is to juxtapose sex and violence. It creates a mini-ritual that shocks the mind into a temporary state of transcendence. These moments are the perfect clutch mechanism [...]

A while back I posted on the plethora of 9-11 conspiracy docs out on the Net. Recently Popular Mechanics published a book to debunk theories promoted by these docs that 9-11 was an inside job. Today Democracy Now! aired an excellent debate on the subject.
Click here to listen/watch.
From the Democracy Now! Web site:
Today, a debate [...]

It’s kinda of strange to see a really good friend get debated in the media, but I’m very happy to announce that my very close amiga from way-back-when, Laurie Colyer, is kicking up some dust with a new feature-length movie out this week, Sherrybaby. Written and directed by Laurie, it’s a riveting tale that begins [...]

Some may have noticed this week’s obsession with propaganda and video. I suppose it’s in the air. With the 9-11 anniversary approaching, here in NY it’s hard not to notice. The searchlights are streatching up from Ground Zero, as they do each year at this time, as a haunting nighttime memorial that daunts the city’s [...]

Hmm, are you scared yet? Having nothing positive to build on, fear tactics are being fully employed for a war, by the video’s own admission, that can’t be identified. There are so many false generalizations, there are not enough words to describe them. They key here is to see how the juxtaposition of imagery is [...]

Holy camel shit! Robert Greenwald (Outfoxed, Wal-Mart: The High Price of Low Prices) shoots another salvo across the neocon bow with his latest grassroots dcoumentary, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers.
Here is the trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7S8TRIyDjs

And, um, no wonder we are losing the war. From Why We Fight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ6MoqhDoxs

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In light of Bush’s speech on terrorism today, I thought I’d pass along the following. There was a great AlterNet article on the fallacy of the paranoid schizophrenia of the neocons. Also, below, a must see: the brilliant BBC documentary, The Power of Nightmares, which does an excellent job of deconstructing the neocon mentality.
AlterNet: War [...]

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In my other, less acerbic life, I am a media literacy “expert.” A Spanish journalist researching a book emailed me some questions about advertising, and this is how I responded:
1) Does advertising work at a subconscious or conscious level?
Both, but mostly subconscious (in general I don’t like to separate the two). First [...]

Like eating too many gooey doughnuts, one of the downsides of a really awesome record is wearing down its grooves to the point of nausea. Sadly, that was the fate of OK Computer, which remains one of my top ten desert island disks, yet I can’t recapture that magical sense of enamor I had with [...]

A classic from Gil Scott Heron:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTCQSk2l8bc

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